How to turn Spotify’s algorithm into your biggest fan

[@tomdupreeiii]

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[@MaPa60]

Great analysis! The problem with this config of the algorhithm is that royalties are so low that it doesn't pay off to give our music a hard push with ads. The ROI is simply not there.

[@omarafunitv]

@@MaPa60 This 💯

[@INTER.NET_TONY]

Very true

[@andiherzog]

I was thinking the same. But the paid traffic is just meant to be a phase to get things going. With each ad run that "pops the balloon", you’ll grow your organic monthly listeners, who won’t rely on ads in the future. As your organic monthly listeners grow, so do the plays for your new songs, which means you’ll need to spend less on ads for the next algorithmic push. After a few of these ad runs, you might not need to run ads to get the algorithm’s attention. That’s when the ROI kicks in and ideally covers all the ad spend up to that point and beyond. At least, that’s how I understand it.

[@tomdupreeiii]

@andiherzog nailed it-this is the long game that we're shooting for.

[@spirationmusic]

We get an ROI with an ad push on individual songs. Not every song of course, but on average!

[@OldSport.mp3]

first time ive made it onto discover weekly, has blown up since with 2-3k extra streams/day. Popularity score reached 31, 10,000 plays in 3 weeks (with ads) - KEEP GOING !

[@tomdupreeiii]

Awesome, keep at it!

[@5pmtonowhere]

So just using this traffic/time argument, why not use playlisting services that would get a lot more streams to the song in a shorter time vs ads for the same spend?

[@davidpaul55555]

Brilliant ! Thanks Tom

[@tomdupreeiii]

You bet!

[@yourbandisabusiness]

In your experience does the short time frame have to be immediately after the release or can it be later? Also have you ever heard of or seen the algorithm determining a big spike in streams to be suspicious?

[@tomdupreeiii]

Great question. If you're shooting to hit Release Radar, it has to be immediately after the release. For things like Radio and Discover Weekly, it can be any time, no matter the age of the song. So, theoretically, you could get an old song to pop if you get the equation right. And yes, I've seen bigger spikes go unrewarded when the rest of the metrics are suspicious like too few listeners or all the streams coming from one location. Things like that are clear evidence of bot activity and Spotify's algorithm won't reward that, so you want to make sure your traffic is organic (that includes paid ads). Spotify also has access to users' behavioral data that we can't see, so it knows a lot about bot account activity that might not be outwardly visible to us, which is another reason to do your best to make sure traffic is legit.

[@yourbandisabusiness]

@@tomdupreeiii Thanks for the insight!

[@robjornayvaz8178]

Does the short window matter how close it is to the release? Can you make a short pop, months after a release?

[@tomdupreeiii]

Great question. For Release Radar, the closer you can get to the release, the better. For everything else, it doesn't matter as long as the window of time is compressed. Though for Discover Weekly, it helps to time it so the track gains momentum going into Monday when that specific playlist updates for the week.

[@robjornayvaz8178]

@tomdupreeiii thank you for the response! So like making a campaign that runs for a week from Sunday to Sunday, hoping that it’s spurs the algorithm to place it on the Monday following the campaign?

[@alane_j]

New sub here! I loved all the info. Thank you!

[@iamhvrcrft]

Yay spend $500 get $0 back but some streams that mean nothing…great music business plan…

[@OldSport.mp3]

10k streams

[@tomdupreeiii]

Love it!

[@marshallross]

What about right after? For instance if I spend like crazy the first 3-4 days with meta ads and then I'm out of budget so my listens plummet?

[@marshallross]

What's a "short" pop push look like?

[@tomdupreeiii]

Great question. So the point of this is to get Spotify's algorithm to pick things up for you long after your ad spend runs out. Rather than using advertising to "prop up" your numbers, you're trying pull off a sneak attack so your song hits Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and/or Radio, generating a long-tail effect. If successful, your music should continue getting discovered long after your advertising push is over.

[@marshallross]

@@tomdupreeiii so if Spotify doesn’t happen to pick up on it it’ll just be a huge spike and then a huge drop off? I’ve always assumed that that would look worse to the algorithm. Just talking out loud here - I guess the point is if the song is going to be successful, do a really big push at the top and then it will take care of itself. And if it was never going to be successful, might as well find out early?

[@marshallross]

Would you be able to do a follow up showing some stats and examples where this has been successful and where it’s failed? Thanks!!

[@mightbefire]

Great video as always. We're a brand new artist - zero everything - and went really hard on the first weekend starting last Friday, but are turning down the ads now starting today (Monday). We were at 2500 streams at 5 pm on Sunday. Do you think this was a mistake? Will the algorithm react negatively to the dropoff of streams today? Would it have been better to spread it out equally over the entire first week? My belief was Spotify really emphasized the first moments - the first weekend specifically. Our main short-term goal is to get Release Radar next weekend.

[@RichardAmesMusic]

Ads are a good way to engage an existing audience but a bad way to build one. Think about it: how often do you find new music via an ad?

[@mightbefire]

we're all built differently. I kind of agree with you - ads aren't my thing personally - but we're getting amazing fans from our ads. we would have to win the social media lottery to achieve what we just did in our first weekend. we're about to hit 3,000 streams on our first release as a brand new band. save rate is at 95%

[@TonyDeSareMusic]

Hi, I applied a few weeks ago to possibly hire you. Haven’t heard anything and don’t have an email to follow up. I’ve got 200,000 monthly’s and songs taking off and want to leverage. If you aren’t taking more clients, let me know so I can move on. Thank you!

[@tomdupreeiii]

Hi Tony. Thanks for the followup here. Just checked, and it looks like we sent you four emails in total, all of which are showing they successfully delivered to your inbox. Not sure why they're not showing up on your end, but I will go ahead and email you again at the address we have for you to see if we can connect. I'd love to chat about joining your team!

[@ASAPTWELVYY]

Just dropped new music … A$AP TWELVYY