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Channel guideHow to Pitch Your Music to Playlist Curators
To pitch playlist curators, start with independent curators whose playlists already feature artists who sound like you, send a short, personal message that names a specific track of theirs and links to yours, and pitch two to four weeks before release — while also submitting to Spotify’s editorial team through Spotify for Artists. Then track who you pitched and who replied, because the follow-through is where placements are won.
This is one channel in the larger guide to pitching your music. The same short, personal approach works for press, radio, and sync — playlists are just where most artists start.
Editorial, independent, or algorithmic — what’s the difference?
“Getting on playlists” actually means three different things, and knowing which is which changes how you pitch:
- Editorial playlists are built by Spotify’s own editorial team — New Music Friday, Fresh Finds, the big genre lists. A single add can mean hundreds of thousands of streams, but they’re competitive and you can’t contact the editors directly; you submit through the platform.
- Independent playlists are run by real people — fans, bloggers, bedroom DJs, music journalists — with anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple hundred thousand followers. You can reach these curators directly, which is why they’re where most independent artists should focus.
- Algorithmic playlists — Discover Weekly, Release Radar — aren’t pitched at all. Spotify generates them from listener behavior, and a strong save rate on your other placements is one of the signals that feeds them.
They reinforce each other: land on the right independent playlists, earn saves from listeners who genuinely like the track, and you improve your odds of the algorithm picking it up and carrying it further than any single pitch could.
Which playlists should you pitch first?
Start with independent curators, and don’t underrate the smaller ones. A placement on a tightly-curated list of a few thousand engaged followers often does more for you than a spot on a giant playlist where listeners skip past. Engaged audiences save and add tracks at much higher rates, and those saves are exactly the signal that tells Spotify’s recommendation engine your song is connecting — which is what nudges it into algorithmic playlists for similar listeners.
So the smart first move isn’t chasing the biggest list you can find. It’s finding the curators whose audience is already primed to like your music, and earning a real save rate there.
How do you find the right curators?
The most reliable method takes ten minutes and beats any purchased list. Pick three or four released songs that genuinely sound like yours — same energy, same lane — and look up the playlists they appear on. Those are lists where your track fits contextually, curated by people whose taste already points at your sound. Note the curator, how to reach them (many list an email or a submission form in the playlist description or their profile), and one specific detail you can reference.
Build a working list of these curators the same way you’d build any outreach target list: relevance over volume, with a concrete reason each one belongs on it. Independent curators also take pitches through email, social DMs, contact forms, and submission platforms like SubmitHub and Groover — but the ones you find by matching your actual sound are the ones most likely to say yes.
How do you pitch editorial playlists?
You pitch Spotify’s editorial team through Spotify for Artists — free, about ten minutes, and you should do it for every release. Submit your unreleased track at least seven days before release day; three to four weeks is better if your distributor lets you deliver early. Pick the most accurate genres and moods, write a genuine note about the song, and submit only one track per release. Even if you don’t land an editorial spot, using the tool tells Spotify a release is coming and helps it toward your own followers’ Release Radar — so there’s no reason to skip it. Apple Music and Amazon have their own pitch tools worth using the same way.
How do you write a pitch curators actually read?
Keep it to three to five sentences. Curators get flooded, and they can tell in one line whether you listened to their playlist or pasted a template. A structure that works:
- A specific hook — name a track already on their playlist and why yours belongs next to it.
- One or two lines on the song — the vibe, the release date, anything real that gives it context.
- One link to listen — ideally your EPK, so they get the track plus who you are in one click. No attachments.
- A low-friction ask — “Would you consider it for [playlist]?”
Personalize the hook for each curator and reuse the rest. That’s the whole difference between a pitch that gets skipped and one that gets played.
When should you send your playlist pitches?
Two to four weeks before release for independent curators — enough lead time to listen and add you ahead of the drop, so your track is live in their playlist the day it comes out. For editorial, the seven-days-minimum window through Spotify for Artists is a hard floor; earlier is better. Pitching on or after release day means you’ve missed the pre-save and new-music windows that give a release its best shot.
How do you keep track of it all?
Once you’re pitching dozens of curators, personalizing each one, and deciding who to follow up with, it becomes a lot to hold in your head. Who did you pitch? Who added you? Who passed but said “send me the next one”? Miss those threads and you lose the compounding value of the relationships you just built. This is why outreach is best run as a pipeline — every curator moving through clear stages so you always know the next move.
Rifflead tracks your playlist outreach like a pipeline — contacts sorted by warmth, every pitch logged the moment you send your EPK, and reminders that resurface the curators going quiet, so the follow-up actually happens.
Start your 14-day free trial →Starting out with a spreadsheet? Here’s an honest look at spreadsheet vs CRM for your contacts and the best CRM options for musicians.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to pay curators to get on their playlist?
No — and you should be wary of anyone who asks. Paying for placement (pay-for-play) violates Spotify’s rules and can get your music and the playlist flagged, and bot-driven playlists can trigger artificial-streaming penalties on your track. Legitimate submission platforms charge a small fee to submit for consideration, not to guarantee a spot. The durable path is pitching curators who genuinely fit and earning the add.
How many playlists should you pitch per release?
Quality beats volume. A focused list of 15–30 genuinely well-matched independent curators, each pitched with a personal note, will out-perform a mass blast every time. Curators can tell instantly whether you actually listened to their playlist, and a batch of copy-paste emails mostly earns silence.
Which matters more, editorial or independent playlists?
They do different jobs. Editorial playlists (the ones Spotify’s own team runs) can deliver huge numbers but are hard to land and out of your direct control. Independent playlists are where most artists actually start — smaller, but reachable, and a strong save rate there can signal Spotify’s algorithm to push your track into Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Pitch both: editorial through Spotify for Artists, independents directly.
Do playlist submission sites like SubmitHub and Groover work?
They can be a useful way to reach curators you don’t already have a contact for and to get quick feedback, but they’re transactional — you pay per submission and don’t keep the relationship. Use them to discover new curators, then hold onto the ones who respond and come back to them directly next release. That owned list is the asset.
How far before release should you pitch playlists?
Two to four weeks before your release date for independent curators, so they have time to listen and slot you in ahead of the drop. For Spotify’s editorial team, submit through Spotify for Artists at least seven days out — ideally three to four weeks if your distributor lets you deliver early. Late pitches miss the pre-save and new-release windows that matter most.
