How To Get More Monthly Listeners On Spotify In 2023 (9 Simple Tips)

Monthly listeners is a good measuring stick for how your fanbase is potentially growing, but increasing your streams and listeners isn't easy.

So here are 9 tips to follow so that you have a clear direction to head in for growing your Spotify streams and monthly listeners.

1. Hone your craft (do something musical every day)
2. Stay consistent
3. Claim your profile with Spotify For Artists
4. Make Spotify Your Focus
5. Pitch to curators every day
6. Have a release strategy
7. Market your music far after the release date
8. Social media 
9. Build An Email List

Spotify Followers vs Monthly Listeners

Spotify followers are Spotify users who have actually clicked the "follow" button on your Spotify profile, while monthly listeners is merely the number of unique users who have streamed at least one of your songs in the last 28 days.

Monthly listeners do not get emails from Spotify when you release new music, nor does your music automatically show up in their Release Radar playlist. 

So a follower on Spotify is certainly more valuable than a monthly listener. Converting your monthly listeners into followers should still be a goal. 

If you want to learn how to grow your Spotify followers, check out my article here, which breaks down how to grow your Spotify followers for free.

By the way, if you're curious what actually counts as a stream on Spotify, or if you streams on repeat or mute count, see my article here. 

Or, if you're wondering how much Spotify actually pays artists per stream, then see my article here.

How Many Monthly Listeners On Spotify Is Good?

Now, you may be wondering just how many monthly Spotify listeners is good. This is a difficult question to answer because this number depends on several different factors, such as what your goals are, and how engaged those monthly listeners are.

Are you monthly listeners only streaming a couple of your songs a month, or are your fans really engaged like the monthly listeners of The Weeknd who average 7 monthly streams each?

To make answering this question easier, I wrote an entire article on this topic that you can read here.

In the article, I also include a free calculator you can use to determine a good monthly listener number for you and your goals. 

1. Hone Your Craft (Improve Daily)

When it comes to growing a fanbase for your music, obviously, it all starts with the music. Your music has to be good. 

Notice, it doesn't have to be perfect, so don't let it not sounding perfect prevent you from releasing new music, but you do need to make it as good as can be. 

To do this, you need to be consistently improving your skills.

But you're never going to be consistent by merely trying harder. 

Instead, you need to pull out your calendar and schedule into your day when you are going to commit to improving your art and craft.

This could look like:

• Practicing songwriting
• Writing lyrics
• Opening your DAW to record or mix
• Practicing an instrument or singing

It can be even more helpful to have a specific intention when you are practicing, as this will help you grow even faster. 

Where is your songwriting weakest? 

Do your choruses seem to be lacking the punch of other songs? Figure out why. What do other songs do? Try to apply that to your practicing. 

Is there a particular mixing technique you want to try? Apply that. 

The key is not to be mindlessly working on music, but to have intention and move in a specific direction. 

"If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there." - Lewis Carroll

2. Stay Consistent

The second foundation of your music career/adventure will be consistency. 

We've already established the importance of consistency when it comes to practice and improving your music creation skills, but it's just as important to stay consistent at growing your fanbase. 

What does this look like? 

• Releasing new music every 4-8 weeks
• Posting regularly to social media
• Pitching your music daily or weekly to playlist curators
• Collaborating regularly with other artists in your space
• Building your email list and sending out emails regularly

I know this is a lot, and if you're like me and have a full-time job, a side business (this site), a spouse and three kids, then doing all of this is next to impossible. 

I see a lot of well-meaning people online teaching that you need to make 2 IG Reels/TikToks a day, leave comments on other people's social media content daily, engage in subreddits or Facebook groups with fans of your genre daily, reach out to music reviewers, befriend and collaborate with others, run ads, oh, and remember to keep putting out new music regularly...

Sure, if you're single and maybe don't have a full-time job, you can pull all of this off, but otherwise, trying to be omnipresent on every platform just isn't feasible. It will make you miserable and you won't be able to stay consistent. 

Again, prioritize consistency of output over volume of output. 

If you do this, momentum will start to take over, and you'll start to be able to do more in less time and, down the road, you can start to expand. 

So if your time is limited, what should you focus on?

There are really just three steps to growing your music business...

1. Grow 
2. Engage
3. Promote

First you grow your exposure and you start to build a group of people who know about you, and have listened to you. 

Next, you need to build your relationship with these people and engage with them. 

Finally, once that relationship is established, and your fans now know, like, and trust you, you need to make offers and promote things to them that they can buy (show tickets, merch, Patreon/membership, etc.). 

So you just need to ask yourself...

1. What one thing am I going to do to grow a following?
2. What one thing am I going to do to engage my followers so they become fans?
3. What am I going to promote to my fans so that I can start to earn an income from music? 

Just go ALL IN on ONE thing in each of these areas. If you find you have some extra time, then add in another one or two. 

There are a lot of different tactics that work, so pick the one that best suits your skills so that you can stay consistent at it

Here are some ideas for each of them:

Grow

• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Paid advertising
• Collaboration

Engage

• Social media
• Email marketing

Promote

• Physical albums (CDs or Vinyl)
• Merchandise 
• Fanclub (Patreon/membership site)
• Teaching (ebooks, courses, 1-on-1 lessons)

So decide how you are going to grow. 

• Are you going to go all in on TikTok and post multiple videos a day?
• Are you going to go all in on YouTube and post covers and collaborations in addition to your original music? 
• Are you going to commit to advertising?

As far as engagement goes, there is some overlap with growth, as you can use a social media platform like, say, Instagram to both grow and engage, depending on the type of content you post. 

For example, Reels would be more geared toward attracting a new audience, whereas stories are more for engaging your current fans. 

But the ABSOLUTE BEST way to engage your fans is through email marketing, and it's not even close. 

Why You Need An Email List TODAY

Any digital marketer with a half a brain will tell you the first place to start when growing a business is by building an email list. And if you are trying to grow your music career, then you are by default looking to build a business. 

You NEED an email list. It's not negotiable. 

Here are some quick stats on why you need an email list:

3.9 billion people use email and that will increase to 4.3 billion by 2023

That's HALF of the world's population.

Your fans are using email, and they are checking it. Daily.

Email is the ONLY way you can directly communicate with your fans, since just about all social media platforms are now "pay-to-play", which means they won't let hardly any of your fans see your posts unless you pay for ads.

Email Marketing Will Make You Money

People are way more likely to buy through email than just about any other means online.

In fact, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42.

Of course, this is dependent on how many products you have to sell (besides just music), but that's a topic for a different post.

Email Marketing Is The Best Way To Build A Relationship With Your Fans

Email is personal, more personal than even social media. You can communicate directly with your fans and build a relationship so that they go from being fans to SUPERFANS.

The difference being that Superfans will buy just about everything you put out, whereas fans might just casually follow you. If you want Superfans, you need an email list. 

If you want to learn how to get started with email marketing for free, then read my article here.

On the other hand...

If you already have an email list, and you want some strategies on how to grow it, read my article here on 15 ways to grow your email list.

No matter what, release new music frequently

No matter what you do for your growing, engaging, and promoting, you'll want to make sure you are consistently releasing new music about every 4-8 weeks. 

This ensures that won't be forgotten, and you'll always have something new and fresh to talk about. 

Plus, this forces to get better as a music artist faster, and build momentum. 

3. Claim Your Profile With Spotify For Artists

Next, if you haven't already, you'll want to make sure you claim your Spotify profile through Spotify for Artists. 

Here is a link to Spotify for Artists.

You can also view my tutorial below which walks you through the process.

In addition to seeing your streaming and follower stats, by claiming your Spotify profile, you'll be able to update what your fans see.

This includes:

• Updating your "artist pick"
• Adding/updating pictures
• Your bio
• Profile and banner images
• Featured playlists

If you want to give your fans a reason to keep coming back to your Spotify profile, then you should treat it like you would any other social media platform, and keep it up-to-date.

Update your pictures, bio, artist pick, and playlists. 

And, of course, if you're releasing new music every 4-8 weeks, then you'll have new music appearing on your profile too, which gives people a reason to come back and listen....

Thus, increasing your Spotify monthly listeners. 

4. Make Spotify Your Focus

Another good idea is to make Spotify your focus when promoting your new music. 

Rather than just telling fans to listen, link them directly to your Spotify for them to listen. 

When you can get a lot of people to create a spike in streams on Spotify, this can trigger the algorithm so that you added to playlists.

Don't list lots of other options like Apple, Amazon, Deezer, etc when you promote your music online. 

Simply have the only link in your bio be one that points to Spotify.

This way, you won't be splitting your audience and streaming numbers across multiple platforms and diluting your efforts.

As you start to promote Spotify more and more, you'll begin to build momentum and trigger the algorithm to push your music for free.

5. Pitch To Curators Daily

Pitching to blogs, playlist curators, and music magazines before and after a release is key to building your audience.

Search for blogs that fit your genre of music and then contact them via email or social media, and ask them if they would consider featuring your song(s).

Some blogs and playlists curators only accept paid submissions through sites like Submithub or  Mysphera, which you will have to pay for. 

You can also simply find playlists on Spotify that are created by regular users like you and me, and then pitch your music to them, asking for placement on their playlists. 

I've had a lot of success with this, and it can also help you to create that spike in streams so you can trigger the algorithm. 

For more help with this, you can grab my free Spotify Playlist Placement guide below, which will walk you through how to find and contact these playlist owners. 

It even includes a script you can use when messaging these curators so you can simply copy and tweak this script to put it in your own words.

Pitch as often as you can. It can be challenging to deal with rejections and negative feedback, but that’s normal for any musician. Your tracks won’t be heard if no one knows they exist.

6. Have a Release Strategy

You'll also want to have a release for your music, rather than just publishing a song and then throwing up a few social media posts. 

It's best if you a tactical, planned out, intentional strategy.

This involves planning out what marketing materials you'll be publishing before, during, and after your release day. 

These materials could include:

• Emails to your email list
• Social media graphics
• Short form videos
• Music videos
• Trailer/teaser videos
• Behind the scenes content
• Ads, if you plan on running them
• Photos of yourself or band members
• Curators you plan on contacting
• Etc.

Get out a calendar and map this all out so you know what you're doing each day for a good 20-30 day period so you never run out new things to share. 

If you're releasing music every 4-8 weeks, then you ensure that you always have something new and fresh to talk about, and you'll never lose momentum, or the interest of your fans.

If you want me to create a guide, or even a sample calendar you can download with a release plan, just let me know in the comments below. 

7. Market Your Music Long After The Release

Mapping out your release for the first month or so is great, but did you know that your old music, even music years old, is brand new to people who have never heard it?

I know, sounds crazy, but it's true! Ha

If are between new releases, you can always go back and promote one of your old releases. You can promote your old music by:

• Sharing it again on social media
• Emailing it out to your list
• Pitching it to playlist curators, influencers, and/or blogs
• Running ads

If you can generate enough of a streaming spike, even long after the initial release, you can still trigger the Spotify algorithm and get it picked up by algorithmic or editorial playlists. 

And even if you don't, you can still generate a lot of new streams and listeners for some of your old music. 

If you want help knowing how to contact playlist curators so they actually add your music to their playlists, then grab my free cheatsheet below:

8. Engage On Social Media

I don't know about you, but I hate social media. I don't even use it personally. The only reason I have any social media is for business purposes (and even then I don't use it as much as I should). 

That said, social media can still be helpful if you put in the time and effort. 

By sharing content that will attract your ideal fan (and adding the correct hashtags), you can start attract some new listeners and fans. 

It's hard to make much progress just by posting, so you'll also probably have to set aside some time to interact on accounts of people who are likely to be a fan of yours as well. 

If you want write more guides, or do a video tutorial on this, just let me know in the comments. 

In the meantime, if you're not sure what to post on Instagram or other social media platforms...

You can checkout my guide here which breaks down 97 different content ideas for music artists.

9. Build An Email List

Email marketing is vital for your success as a music artist in the new music industry.

I shared a little bit above why having an email list is important, but here are few more reasons...

1. Organic Reach Is Pathetic

Organic reach on social platforms is shrinking every day. This means the only way to really reach your fans and followers is to pay for advertising. 

Social platforms are holding your fans hostage for ransom. 

In fact, the average organic reach for a Facebook post is 6.4% of the page's likes, and that's if you're posting engaging content. 

This means if you have 1,000 followers on Facebook, only about 60 of them will see anything you post. 

Compare that email marketing, where 100% of your audience will see your email in their inbox, even if they don't open it, you are still staying top of mind. 

Sure, only 30-35% of people might open your email, but that's still 300-350 fans seeing your message, verses 60 on Facebook.

If you have your fans on an email list, you can contact them at any time, and direct them anywhere you want, whether that's to buy your album, or stream your music on Spotify.

By the way, if you're struggling to get your songs past the <1,000 streams mark on Spotify, then checkout my article here.

2. Email Subscribers Are More Engaged

People who actually consent to give you their email address are by default going to be more engaged, and therefore, more likely to buy.

In fact, people are just far more likely to buy something through email than social media.

So if you're looking to actually make income from your fanbase, and not just gain vanity metrics, then you need to nurture an email list. 

3. You Can Lose Your Social Followers Overnight

An email list is an asset that you own and control. This is not the case with social media.

In our increasingly polarized world, you can easily get your posts blocked, or even your entire account shut down, just for sharing an opinion or a post that social platform doesn't agree with.

You don't want to lose your entire following overnight. 

If you have an email list, your fans are protected, and you can always direct them to a new platform. 

More than that...

What if selling your music was easy as sending an email? Well, it can be!

Email is THE BEST way to sell your music in 2022 and beyond. 

Therefore, having an email list should be the foundation of your music business. 

Email gives you...

• A way to easily reach your audience, whereas social media holds your audience "hostage"
• A platform just about everyone uses
• A platform people are comfortable buying through 

But how exactly do you go about selling your music though email? Here's how...

In my article here, I break down how to sell your music (or just about anything else you want to sell) in 9 easy steps.

I've used the tips in this email to sell $1,000+ digital courses in the past, so they absolutely will work for selling music, merch, or fanclub memberships.

If you don't even have an email list yet, and you're not ready to sell yet...

Then read my guide here where I walk you through how to get started with building a mailing list.

I've used these strategies to generate tens of thousands email subscribers.  

The Secret To Triggering The Spotify Algorithm

Spotify's algorithm is driven by the inputs it receives from users. 

The platform is constantly watching how its users engaged with different types of music in order to feed them more of what they like. 

There are certain positive and negative indicators that the Spotify algorithm receives in order to determine which songs to suggest to its users. 

If your music receives a lot of positive indicators, and not as many negative, then Spotify will start serving up your music to new fans. 

One of the best positive indicators is seeing your music being added to new playlists. 

Now, you can't control if your music is added to algorithmic or editorial playlists, but you can contact user-created playlists and ask those playlist owners to add your music. 

I've put together a free step-by-step guide that walks you through how to do this so you can start to get more playlist adds, which leads to more streams, saves...

And can even lead to triggering the algorithm so it shares your music for you!

Get my free cheatsheet here.