How To Get More Spotify Followers For Free In 2023

Gaining followers on Spotify is a little bit more challenging than other social media platforms.

However, this guide will walk you through 12 tactics for growing your Spotify followers.

1. Promote on social media
2. Update artist profile
3. Spotify Canvas
4. Release music more consistently
5. Submit your music to Spotify Editorial Team
6. Pitch your music to Spotify Playlist Curators
7. Pitch to non-playlist curators (Musician Guidance)
8. Directly Ask People To Follow You
9. Create Culture-Centered Artwork
10. Create and promote your own playlists
11. Leverage The Power Of Email Marketing
12. Run A Giveaway

Why Do You Want To Gain Followers On Spotify?

The more followers you gain, the higher your stream "floor" becomes.

This means you'll get more and more streams with each new release. 

Plus, having followers gains you free Spotify promotion for every release.

This comes in the form of Spotify emailing your followers every time you have new release, and also the Release Radar algorithmic playlist. Your music will appear in the Release Radar playlist for everyone who follows you.

1. Promote On Social Media

This one might seem obvious, but there are ways of posting on social media that are more effective than others for getting your followers to follow you on Spotify. 

First, you need to make it very clear where fans are meant to go, and what they are meant to do (click the follow button). 

Additionally, you need to post frequently, as many of your fans aren't going to see all of your posts. 

Finally, you need to post in such a way that catches the attention of your followers. 

Just posting, "follow me on Spotify" isn't going to be effective as sharing a link to one specific song from Spotify, sharing a story about that song, and then inviting your fans to follow you on Spotify for more. 

2. Update Your Artist Profile

Why should someone follow on your Spotify? What extra benefit do they receive from being a follower there that they don't already get from other social media platforms? 

The answer is the unique content they can only get by checking out your artist profile. 

If you haven't claimed your Spotify For Artists profile yet, then you should do so right away.

This is really easy to do. Just click the link here and follow the steps.

Or watch my tutorial below:

Claiming your profile gives you access to many useful features, data, and more. 

Optimize your profile by completing each of the options available to you there:

1. Add high-quality photos
2. Add your bio with your story
3. Make your artist pick
4. Feature your playlist(s)
5. Link to your social media profiles

Treat Spotify Like A Social Media Platform

People follow social media platforms because they want to see regular new content. 

If you update Spotify regularly and make sure it has create content, people will want to follow you. 

3. Use Spotify Canvas

Spotify Canvas allows you add short 3-8 second videos to your Spotify songs. 

This might sound like much, but it gives you the ability to create a richer experience for your listeners, and gives you the ability to introduce storytelling, context, world-building, and more to your music. 

In short, Spotify Canvas gives you one more touchpoint to potentially connect with your listeners so that they are inspired to follow. 

If you want to learn more about creating effective Spotify canvas videos, check out this article here.

4. Release Music More Consistently

Like every digital platform, Spotify's main goal is to keep listeners on Spotify. 

Therefore, the more you can bring people to, and keep them on, the platform, the more Spotify will promote your music. 

Spotify tracks just about everything when it comes to how people engage with their platform. 

If you make more music, then you are giving listeners a reason to keep coming back, again and again. 

If we are thinking of Spotify as a social media platform, then of course, we would upload consistently and frequently. After all, you wouldn't go months and months without posting to Instagram if you were trying to grow your Instagram followers. 

If you want help finishing more music, faster, so you can release music more consistently...

Then grab my free Rapid Song-Finishing Checklist by clicking here.

5. Pitch Your Music To The Spotify Editorial Team

Spotify themselves have an editorial team to whom you can submit your music. 

If they accept, they will add your music to one of their massive editorial playlists.

Getting your music on Spotify editorial playlists is the fastest way to explode your Spotify streams and followers, and it can revolutionize your music career overnight.

If you claimed your Spotify For Artists profile, then you now have the ability to submit a song to the editorial team.

But how exactly do you get your music on a Spotify editorial playlist?

Placement is very competitive, so if you want to increase your chances of actually getting selected, then you need to put in the work to first build up your streams and other playlist placements. 

You can see my full guide for how to submit (and actually land) a placement on a Spotify editorial playlist here.

6. Pitch Your Music To Spotify Playlist Curators

You can't really control if you get added to a Spotify editorial playlist. 

It's far easier to get your music added to user-created playlists. All you have to do is find playlists that were created by real users of the platform which have music similar to yours. 

Then contact that playlist owner and ask them if they would be willing to add your music to their playlist(s). 

If you want a more in-depth, step-by-step guide (including a copy-and-paste script) on how to land playlist placements, then click the button below:

7. Pitch Your Music To Non-Playlist Curators 

There are tons of magazines, websites, YouTube channels, and blogs out there that are willing to showcase your music, you just have to reach out to them. 

If you can get other influencers, with audiences that like music similar to yours, to review or talk about your music, then you end up getting a lot of new people checking out your music on Spotify.

Even better, see if these influencers would be willing to include a link to a page where their audience can give you their email addresses in exchange for a free song. 

By doing this, you will actually be capturing an audience that you can promote to again and again. 

If their audience just goes to Spotify, they might check you out once and never return. 

But if you get them on your email list, then you can send them back to your Spotify profile again, and again. 

I talk a little bit more about email marketing later on, but if you want to learn how to get started with email marketing for free, then just click here.

By the way, if you're wanting more help with just growing your Spotify streams...

Then check out my article here on 22 tips for getting more Spotify streams for free.

8. Directly Ask People To Follow You

Of course, there is always the good, old-fashioned, just talking to people and asking them to follow you. 

You can ask your friends, family, and even your followers directly, one-on-one, if they would be willing to follow you on Spotify. 

Simply use email, or direct message, to contact people and ask if they would follow you on Spotify.

Be sure to lead with what is in it for them. What benefit will they get by following you on Spotify? 

9. Create Culture-Centered Artwork

To create more followers, you want to invite them into the world and culture behind your music. 

One of the best ways to either create a culture, or tap-into an existing one, is through the artwork you use. 

Multi-6-figure earning independent artist, LEAH, does this with her artwork. 

She creates Symphonic Celtic Fantasy Metal music, and she uses her artwork as a beacon to her potential followers that her music will transport them into one of their favorite realms (fantasy). 

People who like fantasy, Celtic history, the medieval era, etc., will see her artwork and give her music a listen because it fits in with what they're already interested in. 

In other words, you don't want to just create good artwork that stands out, but you want your artwork to stand out to the RIGHT people...

The people who are the most likely to become super fans of your music. 

My wife and I create synthwave music under the artist name, Andromeda Coast, and so we had artwork created for our upcoming album, Lunatics, that will catch the attention of synthwave fans. 

From the colors, fonts, and sci-fi imagery, this album artwork shouts, 

Hey, if you like synthwave music, sci-fi, and adventure, you're probably going to love this music!

If you want to create your own artwork, you can use a tool like Canva. 

However, unless you are a great designer or artist...

You're probably better off hiring someone from Fiverr.

Or, better yet, you can hire my sister, who is a fantastic digital artist. You can contact her here. (Contact info soon to come!)

10. Create & Promote Your Own Spotify Playlist(S) 

We've already talked about the power of getting your music on Spotify playlists, but what if you didn't have to pitch your music?

What if you owned your own playlist (or series of playlists) which you could simply add all of your new music to? 

You would have access to hundreds or thousands of immediate streams. 

Plus, as you grow the followers of your playlist, you will start to get followers for your artist account. 

To get discovered, create a niche or genre-specific playlist and promote that to your fans, listeners, and on platforms such as Facebook and Reddit.

You can check out my full guide on growing your own Spotify playlists here.

11. Leverage The Power Of Email Marketing

I mentioned this earlier, but it's worth saying again. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your music business. 

Email marketing is far superior to social media because email subscribers are much more likely to see what you send them, and take action on what you sent.

Plus, people are far more likely to buy through email than social media. 

So email marketing is simply a no-brainer. 

By building and cultivating an email list, you can send regular emails to your subscribers asking them to follow you on Spotify, and you WILL grow your followers. 

The best way to grow your list is to offer something for free (like an exclusive song) in exchange for their email address.

You can set all of this up for free with a tool called ConvertKit. 

You can check out my full guide on getting started with email marketing here.

Finally, another fantastic way to grow your followers is by running a giveaway.

You can use a free tool like KingSumo so that after everyone signs up, and you get their their email address (great way to build your email list) they are prompted to gain extra entries by completing certain actions. 

These extra actions can be anything you want, but one of them could be following you on Spotify. 

This way, you are incentivizing people to follow you on Spotify. 

Trigger The Spotify Algorithm

Ultimately, the best way to gain more followers is just for more people who like similar music to hear your music. 

If enough of those people listen to your music, some of them are bound to like it enough to follow you.

The key is getting Spotify to show your music to more of these listeners. 

The good news is that you do this. You just have to trigger the Spotify algorithm.

The best way to trigger the Spotify algorithm is to get your music on to more playlists. 

Like I talked about earlier, the only playlists you can directly reach out to are user-created playlists. 

If you get your music on enough of these playlists, then Spotify will start to add your music to algorithmic playlists, and eventually, editorial playlists...

Exploding your streams and your followers. 

For a step-by-step guide on implementing this strategy, just grab my free Playlist Placement Guide below:

I hope you found this post on growing your Spotify followers helpful!

If so, feel free to share, and let me know what other questions you have about growing your Spotify streams.