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Teaching Spotify's algorithm

Spotify decides what to play next (Radio, autoplay, Discover Weekly, Release Radar) and which artists to show under your Fans Also Like section by trying to figure out who your sound is like. You can influence that by feeding Spotify the right signals.

Why it matters

• When an artist you're grouped with drops new music, their listeners may get served your songs via Radio and autoplay
• When you drop new music, Spotify will test it with fans of the artists you're grouped with. If it performs (saves, repeat listens), Spotify pushes harder
• Good grouping = better algorithmic exposure. Bad grouping = your songs get shown to the wrong people and underperform, which hurts you

How Spotify decides who you're like

1. Shared listeners: how many of the same people listen to you and another artist. The more overlap, the stronger the association.
2. Online content about your music: blogs, tour history, your Spotify bio, who you've name-dropped. Spotify crawls this to piece together who you sound like.

How to influence it

• Get on well-targeted playlists: playlists that feature the artists you want to be grouped with teach Spotify exactly that. A tightly genre-focused playlist is far more useful than a variety playlist. On SubmitHub, look at each playlist's "genre focus" rating to gauge fit.
• @ other artists in your Spotify bio: you can tag similar acts directly in your Spotify for Artists bio. Spotify reads that.
• Create your own artist playlist: a public playlist on your Spotify profile featuring the artists you want to be compared to, with a description naming them, gives Spotify another signal.
• Blog coverage: posts that mention you alongside similar acts feed into Spotify's crawl of your online footprint.

Want the deeper dive?

We wrote two longer pieces on this: Teaching Spotify's Algorithm and Playlists + Meta Ads: Spotify promo that works.