Trying to find Spotify Playlist Curators?
You’ve read all the blogs about being successful on Spotify and understand the importance of spreading your Spotify playlist wings.
You’ve created a few of your very own playlists and had no trouble convincing yourself to include your latest release on there…
Some may call you biased but you’re a tastemaker in your own right so your reasoning is totally valid.
That said, here are 14 Ways to Find The Contact Information of Spotify Playlist Curators.
Contents
1) Low Hanging Fruits
Believe me, the act of doing this research to find contact information can be very tedious.
Easy, but tedious.
Trust me we have all been there and it is no fun finding a playlist that fits your music perfectly and then spending a half hour or more searching for the owner of this playlist only to find nothing that can help you contact them.
So instead of spending too much time digging for top curators’ contact info at the beginning of your search, adjust your strategy, work smarter, and use your time more effectively by looking for low-hanging fruits.
What I mean by low-hanging fruit are those profiles that give you what you want instantly. They either plug their website or socials in their bio or the playlist description. Or they provide you with an email, band name, record label, etc. Anything that gives you a clue that will allow you to easily reach out to them.
If they have a generic curator name, nothing in their profile, or just a listing of what the playlist consists of I suggest you move on to the next playlist…. as a start anyways.
If you do have a strong attachment to the playlist and feel that it is a perfect fit I suggest you mark it down for later and come back to it when you can pour more energy into figuring out who the playlist belongs to.
I want to open your eyes to a few realities here. For starters, if you spend too much time on this aspect of getting on playlists you will be setting yourself up for wasted time and possible disappointment.
Imagine spending hours trying to hunt down someone’s contact info only for them to either not reply or hate your music and tell you how they really feel about it. What is your motivation going to be like to find that next contact and reach out to them?
Depends on the individual I suppose.
Instead of this approach, I suggest you get your list filled with this low-hanging fruit we speak of and begin thinking about how you can strategically approach them. These people are usually open to submissions and used to people cold calling them, so chances are your submissions will be heard.
From here you can set aside time to focus on those harder-to-find contacts and utilize some of the strategies listed below.
2) Very Distinct Names
For some reason, people out there are willing to give you everything and more. I’m talking about full government names, birthdays, blood types, etc.
Ok, the last one might be a stretch but keep an eye out for these people because they are on Spotify.
What you are looking for here is a couple of things. Some people will tend to use their first, last AND Middle name as their curator name. If this is the case you can certainly use this to your advantage and do a simple search on either Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
More often than not you will be able to find who you are looking for and can often be tipped off by matching profile pictures, or by them promoting their playlist on other social platforms.
The same goes for very long names and unique names. You will have to use your discretion and judgment of course but simply typing Mike Green into any search field would be a nightmare to try and find the specific person you are looking for. The name is way too generic and there are probably thousands of people with that name in the world.
You should also be on the lookout for names that seem to reference a blog, record label, promotion company, etc. as these are typically easy wins as well.
3) LinkedIn
Time and time again I see many artists not utilizing LinkedIn and I think it’s because they do not see themselves as a business. However, those big curated playlists you are after… You guessed it the people running them are probably on LinkedIn. Before you reach out to anyone on LinkedIn make sure your profile is professional and up to date.
This platform is a network of professionals including music professionals. The people running these Curated Spotify playlists, work for Spotify and there is a good chance that they are proud of this. Start off by searching for some Spotify employees on Linkedin.
Log into your Linkedin account and type “Spotify,” along with keywords such as editor, editorial, label services, etc. This will give you a pool of employees, not certainly curators, to track on Spotify.
Keep in mind that you should have a strategy for reaching out to these people. A simple “Yo dude, what’s good? You should add my music to your playlist” will not get you anywhere.
Trust me, it may seem funny and insane but people do it and even if they have a more polished approach they don’t get results because they are thinking about the one thing the person on the other side of the message doesn’t care about… Themselves and their agenda.
You have to prove to them that working with you will help them and not just you. So please keep this in mind before you start blindly throwing spaghetti at the wall in hopes that something sticks. This is where having a professional profile and good music comes in handy.
4) Reddit
There are a number of Spotify playlist threads out there that can help you. For one, you may be able to search and find the name of the playlist you are after on Reddit and strike up a conversation with the creator.
You will also come across a number of other people promoting their own playlists that you can build relationships with, this could lead to you being added to their playlist and potential playlist networking.
Also, there are other people out there trying to promote their own music and are willing to do things like a “Follow for a Follow.”
The cool thing with Reddit, or any other forum for that matter, is that you can strike up your own conversations, create threads and sometimes get the answers you are looking for whether it be the contact of a specific playlist or other playlists open for submissions.
5) Search The Spotify Communtiy
This is very similar to what was mentioned above with Reddit. Keep in mind that Spotify has its own community forum as well that you can access and participate in.
This is another place where you can look to create relationships with people running playlists and replicate the actions mentioned previously. To learn more about the Spotify community click here.
6) Submission Platforms
Some curators will request that you contact them via a paid submission platform such as SubmitHub or Groover. When pitching to curators on submission platforms, take the time to write a personalized pitch for each curator. It shows that you took the time to look through their playlist and make sure your music is a good fit.
Here is a link to the Top 10 Spotify Playlist Curators You Can Submit For Free!
Submithub
Here is a platform that gives you the ability to submit your music to music bloggers, Spotify playlists, record labels, and more. This is an interesting concept and not just limited to Spotify. SubmitHub gives you all sorts of statistics and ways to filter who to send your music to.
The editors at Spotify and Apple Music follow the very bloggers and playlists on this directory to discover the best new songs. The feedback you receive on your songs can be helpful and a blog post can help gain new followers and also gives you something to add to your resume.
With that said there are pros and cons to this service which I go into more detail about here in my SubmitHub review.
Groover
Groover connects emerging artists with the best media, radios, and labels. Groover is a relatively new platform and guarantees musicians to be listened to, get feedback and gather coverage. Groover also runs a blog and several online showcases for up-and-coming musicians.
SoundPlate
This is another submission platform that gives you a number of playlists that you can directly submit your music to. There are a number of other cool features that this site provides other than just submissions. Check out our full review on this platform and how you can use the site to help further your career.
Playlists.net
This is another playlist submission platform that you can utilize to try and get your music on playlists. They are a playlist aggregator that people promote their playlists on and you can reach out to the creators on here to submit your music. You can also promote your own playlists here as well. Check out our review on Playlists.net
7) Search Usernames in Google
This was mentioned in one of the earlier suggestions. However, to elaborate on this you can use people’s curator names or playlist names in Google to try and find contact information.
The thing that you will usually find is that all that will appear is their Spotify playlist which we already have.
What you can do is modify your search with “-Spotify playlist” so that Google will not display any Spotify results in the search. For example, if the playlist name is “Pitchfork ” then you would search the following “Pitchfork –Spotify Playlist”.
Below is the normal search query:
The rationale here is that we are trying to find mentions of this playlist anywhere else on the web except Spotify. By using the minus sign as a search modifier Google will eliminate results directly related to the Spotify website/platform. This is not always a sure thing but it is one method that you can utilize.
8) Search Names on Social Media
Again this was also mentioned above but you are simply trying to search the names you found in Spotify profiles and playlists and hope that you can find something that relates to the playlist you are after.
Whether it be an image, similar artwork, or a different variation of the name. This can be done across multiple social platforms. Keep in mind someone might heavily use Twitter and sees no use for Instagram.
So it’s no mystery that this can be time-consuming if you have to rifle through each social platform but the more time you put in and the more resources you exhaust the more success you will have. Check out these Social Media pro tips here.
9) Search Names on Blogs
If you are aware of some popular blogs or magazines, more times than not they will be pushing their own playlists as well. You can utilize SubmitHub to identify some of these blogs and submit to them.
On most blogs, they will usually identify who the author of the blog or specific post is. You can use this information to create a relationship with this author and eventually determine if they are curating a playlist for your target audience and if they’d be interested in promoting your music.
10) Connect With Other Artists
This is another useful method for you to get added to playlists. You can approach other artists you know and see if they will share the contacts of playlist curators they have gotten placements with.
Be aware that you don’t know what route the artist took to get this placement and they may not be willing to share this information with you.
You can also reach out to an artist you don’t know and do the same thing but again chances are they may not be open to sharing this information… Unless… You create a relationship with them before you ask.
Another method here is to focus on playlists that these people are creating themselves. Similar to the playlist you should be creating as well.
Eventually, you may be able to leverage posting their music on your playlist in exchange for them to post your music on their playlists. Keep in mind that if you do not have a playlist of your own or have not been focusing on this strategy then you are diminishing your bargaining power.
Think about all the artists you could reach out to with this approach. This is similar to the follow-for-a-follow method, however, the difference here is that you are being placed in front of an audience with a stronger chance of engagement whereas just being followed doesn’t get you anything but one empty follow.
11) Look at “Discovered On” Playlists
This method focuses on your competition and artists who are typically at a similar level as you in your music career. It’s hard to hide secrets sometimes and getting on Spotify playlists is no different.
If you search an artist’s “Discovered On” lists, you will be presented with a list of playlists that will more than likely be open to your submissions.
Why this is more for less established artists is because this will be a lot harder if the artist has a ton of curated or branded playlists on this list.
If you see an artist at a similar level as you, landing placements, these playlists are a great place to start focusing your outreach efforts.
12) Keep an Eye Out for Artist Promoting Their Placements
This one was left for last but probably should have been mentioned earlier for a couple of key points. First of all, this is a key strategy as your competition is doing half of the work for you.
If they are at a similar level as you in their career then more than likely you have a similar chance of getting on the same playlists. So keep an eye out for other artists promoting certain playlists or mentioning placements because they are giving you a clue as to where you can also get a placement.
Now the second part of this that I wanted to mention because it is very important to ensure you do not fall victim to this very phenomenon.
What I am referring to here is the trap many artists fall into of comparing themselves to other artists. Human nature tends to make us feel jealous when we see the success of other artists. It’s easier said than done to sit there and be happy for them and think good things will come your way.
I caution you not to fall victim to this though because it blinds you to opportunities that are right in front of your nose.
Trust me I have seen it happen. You see an artist post about the recent placement he got and your first thought is “are you kidding me?” “Their music isn’t even that good” “I wish someone would wake up and place my music on their playlists”
Trust me, pity parties are not as fun as anyone may tell you they are. With all of this negative energy, you lose sight of the bigger picture and the opportunity/possible home run your competition has just presented you.
Think about it, if they got on the list this means there is a way and it’s possible. In some cases, they may very well have a connection that you don’t but in most cases, these playlists are openly looking for submissions and you just need to do a little digging to get your foot in the door.
13) Contact Best Practices
Once you’ve located the curator’s contact info it’s important to consider your contact method. When contacting someone via email It’s easy to get lost in someone’s inbox.
Some curators will state that email is their preferred contact method- In that case, include words like “music submission for -specific playlist name” in the subject line of your email so the recipient knows right away what to expect.
Make sure you’re not sending out mass emails. Website contact forms: Many companies and brands provide contact forms on their website. You can treat these essentially the same way as email, it’s best to choose one contact method. It’s unprofessional to send messages to the same curator via multiple platforms.
Closing Thoughts On How To Find Spotify Playlist Curators
I cannot begin to stress enough the importance of control in this day and age. We often set goals that we have zero control over.
“I want to make $100,000 with my album release”, “I want to get placement on 100 Spotify playlists” “I want 20,000 streams” and the list goes on.
You have no control over some aspects of these goals. Often times people who set goals fail and never achieve them. However, you can be different and set (focus on) the necessary steps to achieve your goal instead.
Like we keep stressing it is the little things that allow you to grow. So make sure you direct your attention towards the things that you have control over. Building and growing your own playlists, creating great music, continually networking, and sticking to your well-thought-out strategies.
Let us know any other tricks you have for finding industry contacts in the comments below.
Kevin is the founder of Music With Flavor, which joined Whipped Cream Sounds in 2023. He is a seasoned musician turned industry expert. His passion for music goes beyond melodies; he delves deep into the intricate world of music marketing, striving to unearth the most effective strategies for indie musicians. However, Music With Flavor isn’t just about Kevin’s knowledge; it’s a network of industry experts handpicked to provide the most trusted advice. Kevin’s role is to pose the right questions, not just answer them, as he and his team tirelessly research trends, connect with artists, and gather valuable insights.
Thanks a lot for these great tips guys!
I just rated this article 5 stars because it deserves it. Reading the comments I can’t believe non of the avobe left a rate, is free and a way to say thanks for such great guidance. Anyway…
All of the tips are awesome, I already did several of them along the road (yeah, I am an upcoming artist) but some were completely new to me, so a great find!
Again thanks a lot guys!
Hi there!
Cool article. Thank you so much for this.
Please can you add also https://spotimatch.com/ this is a very low-cost tool where you can find all playlists contacts.
Thank you so much 🙂
Hi there!
Cool article. Thank you so much for this.
Please can you add also https://spotimatch.com/ this is a very low-cost tool where you can find all playlists contacts.
Thank you so much 🙂
Great tips! Thank you so much 🙂
Great tips! Thank you so much 🙂
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