Looking to get your music onto Spotify playlists? Here are the top 11 services I’d recommend as of 2023. I’ve personally tried every single one.
- Spotify for Artists
- Indie Music Academy
- Playlist Push
- YouGrow
- SubmitHub
- Moonstrive Media
- Partnered Projects
- Groover
- Omari MC
- Daimoon Media
- SubmitLink
Looking for the details on each option?
That’s almost certainly a smart call. Keep reading for the background on playlisting services and a breakdown of each one I’ve included on the list. (Background’s coming up next, and if you want to skip to the breakdown of each service, click here.)
What is playlisting?
Let’s start things off by defining our term: Playlisting is any activity that results in music being added to a playlist.
Pretty straightforward on its surface, but it’s a little more complicated if you dig down.
Here are a few things you should know about playlisting:
Most often, when people on the internet talk about “playlisting,” they’re referring to Spotify playlisting (i.e., getting a song added to a playlist on Spotify). That’s because, while streaming services like Apple Music and Amazon Music (and others) do feature playlists, they don’t provide easy avenues for artists to reach the curators of those playlists. In other words, if you want to get on an Apple editorial playlist, you need a personal connection or a ton of luck. Neither of those things are required to get on Spotify playlists.
So, again, the term “playlisting” typically translates to “Spotify playlisting.”
But there’s a layer further down from this, too, because…
There are actually three types of playlists included in Spotify playlisting:
- Editorial playlists
- Algorithmic playlists
- User-created playlists
I’ve written about these three types of playlists in a lot more detail here, but the gist is that you can get on editorial playlists by pitching through the Spotify for Artists submission tool, you can get on user-created playlists by contacting the users who have created those playlists, and you can only get on algorithmic playlists if Spotify’s all-knowing, omnipotent AI determines your music is a good fit for them (which, in all seriousness, is generally a result of you getting high-quality streams from other sources first).
The bottom line of all of this…
While you have some ability to impact editorial playlists, you have the most ability to impact user-created playlists – and so that type of playlist is the one that playlisting services tend to focus on. Consequently, when the internet talks about “playlisting services,” it’s most often referring to activities that get your music onto user-created Spotify playlists.
Okay, with all of that said, I think it’s probably worthwhile to explain where I’m coming from with this information.
My background with playlisting services
This isn’t really to brag (it’d be a weird thing to brag about), but I’ve had a lot of experience with playlisting services.
I’ve written about how it all happened in more detail before, but the the long and short of it is that because I run this blog, I’ve had a lot of playlisting companies reach out and ask me to review their services. As a result, I’ve spent over $3,000 testing dozens of playlisting companies with dozens of different songs and artists. I’ve seen some scams (read: botted streams) and I’ve seen some campaigns that caused songs to legitimately take off.
I’m not a major record label with tons of resources, so I’m sure there are people who have spent a ton more on playlisting than I have – but because I’ve tested so many different companies, I think I probably have a breadth of experience that’s comparable to just about anyone in the industry.
And that’s why I feel comfortable explaining…
How playlisting works
There are a few different models that playlisting services use. Each company has its own variation on these, but in general they get music onto playlists by…
1. Owning their own playlist network. This model is both the easiest for a playlisting company to operate (because they control everything) and frankly, the most likely to be a scam.
It’s hard to read it as something other than a violation of Spotify’s terms of service, which state that it’s against user guidelines to “accept compensation… to influence the content included on an account or playlist.” I mean, in my opinion, companies using this model are essentially accepting payment to include you on a playlist.
The rebuttal they’ll make is that they aren’t accepting compensation to influence an account or playlist – singular – but rather they’re taking payment to include music on some unspecified playlist out of their many options. I’m not sure how that holds up, but clearly, it’s murky territory.
The other model tends to be more legitimate.
2. Building relationships with playlist curators. This is the most common model: a company has a network of curators and they take payment to send your song to their network.
On its face, this is legitimate, because the curator isn’t necessarily taking payment. Behind closed doors, though, most playlisting services do, in fact, pay the curators in their network – either via a flat fee per month, or via some rate to “review” playlist submissions. Both of these skirt the boundaries of Spotify’s guidelines by (supposedly) paying for something other than influence over content (i.e., the curator is paid to “review” the song rather than to include it on a playlist; they have the opportunity to reject the song so that it’s not payola.)
Again, it’s murky. But this model tends to be more legitimate (and it usually drives better results).
Is playlisting a scam?
With those models for context, some people will argue that playlisting is a scam. My personal opinion is that most playlisting companies are not scams.
I’ve gotten on this soapbox before, but the literal definition of a scam is a “dishonest scheme.” A few companies (not listed here) will tell you they’ll get real streams and then knowingly put your song on lists with bots. But most of these companies don’t do that – and they’re actually very straight-up about what you can expect when you work with them.
That doesn’t mean that the results a company gets will be amazing, but it takes them out of “scam” territory, at least in my book.
And again, as I’ve said – sometimes, the results are awesome. It’s hard to call something a scam when it’s responsible for driving millions of legitimate streams and substantial fanbase growth.
Okay, so should you use a playlisting service to promote your music?
My answer (as it is too often ha) is this: It depends.
Playlisting services can be a great way to drive cost-efficient streams. Some of the biggest songs I’ve worked on (with multiple millions of streams) have seen huge growth from playlisting campaigns.
But playlisting services can also be risky. That’s not just because of scams that drive bot plays, but also because if you get on legitimate playlists that aren’t a good fit for your music, then playlist listeners might not engage – and poor engagement, in turn, hurts Spotify’s algorithmic perception of your music and your future growth.
Personally, I recommend using a combination of marketing tactics to drive Spotify growth. Usually, I recommend Facebook ads in tandem with playlisting.
But if you have a limited budget (which, let’s be real, you probably do), then you’ve probably got to make the decision to focus on a single tactic. Playlisting can be risky, but it’s probably the most cost-efficient way to get streams – and sometimes, those streams lead to real, meaningful, long-term growth.
It’s ultimately your call.
And that’s all the background I’ve got.
Hopefully, some of that is helpful as you consider these playlisting services – and now, let’s get into the services themselves.
With all of that said, here’s my subjective take on the top 11 services for Spotify playlisting in 2023. (And again – unlike many of the other roundup posts you’ll read on this topic – I’ve actually tried all of these services myself.)
1. Spotify for Artists
Cost: Free
Playlist details: This is the only (legitimate) way to get onto Spotify editorial playlists. These include some of the biggest playlists in the world, like Rap Caviar, Are & Be, and Rock This.
My take: Up first, we’ve got the Spotify for Artists portal itself.
To be honest, I debated putting this on the list because it’s more of a tool than it is a service – but it’s also the one playlisting option that I feel comfortable recommending without any hint of equivocation. The bottom line is that, every time you put out a song, you should pitch it through the Spotify for Artists portal. There’s no reason not to, and the potential reward is huge.
Most often, you’ll get rejected (which just means that you’ll never hear anything back). But sometimes, you’ll get placed onto an editorial playlist – and when you do, it’s awesome.
Here’s Spotify’s guidelines on pitching through their tool. It’s worth noting that you should get your music to your distributor at least three weeks before your release date to give Spotify time to review it.
You can go to your Spotify for Artists portal here.
2. Indie Music Academy
Cost: Starts at $297 for 10,000 streams
Playlist info: They focus on a targeted selection of SEO-winning playlists – lists that appear when you use Spotify’s search bar. The campaigns I’ve tried have landed songs in playlists like Indie Rock Hits and TikTok Music 2023.
My take: I’ve had this company, run by Ryan Waczek, on top of my list of Spotify promotion services for a while. You can read my full review of an Indie Music Academy campaign here, but the gist is that Ryan runs a tight ship.
The company works with a relatively small network of curators, so I’ve found that they’re more likely to decline your song (and offer a refund) than many other playlisting companies. But, relatedly, their lists all tend to be very active; I’ve seen them drive hundreds of thousands of streams over a few months, all from legitimate listeners.
That’s the strength of their SEO-based approach (you can read their own explanation of how they work here). The drawback of their model is that they aren’t the best option for targeting niche, genre-fit playlists, because their curator network is so selective.
But they offer a guaranteed threshold of streams; they’ll refund you the difference if they don’t hit it. And they will definitely get you legitimate streams to get there.
You can check out Indie Music Academy here.
3. Playlist Push
Cost: Starts at around $280 for submission to ~20 playlists
Playlist info: They have “the largest playlist curator network” in the game, with over 4,000 playlists and a reach of over 150M followers. The campaigns I’ve tried have landed songs in playlists like Winter Chill 2023 and Happy Acoustic Hits.
My take: You’ll find some people calling this company a scam online, but I lean very hard in the other direction. I actually think Playlist Push is the best playlisting service in the world at genre targeting.
I think a lot of the flak they take online is for one of two reasons: 1) They don’t guarantee results, and 2) their network is so large that, admittedly, it’s difficult for them to enforce playlist quality as rigidly as someone who operates with a small network (like Indie Music Academy).
The way these guys work is that their system sends your song to a certain number of curators (unlike with SubmitHub, you set the initial guidelines, but you don’t submit to individual curators). Those curators review the song and will send you a note of approval or rejection. If you want more details on how it works behind the scenes, I interviewed their founder, George Goodrich, here.
Most campaigns I’ve run get an approval rate of between 20% and 50%, but I’ve also run multiple campaigns where all 20 curators have rejected the track – and I think that’s the biggest reason artists complain about this service. You can pay $300 and get no results.
But when you do get results (and you almost always get some), they tend to be pretty darn targeted, thanks to the impressive size of the network. You can read my full review of a Playlist Push campaign here, but the overview is that a small spend landed us on targeted playlists and supercharged long-term growth.
You can check out Playlist Push here. (And you can use code CXUFDQ2 to get 7.5% off your campaign.)
4. YouGrow
Cost: Starts at $77 for 2,000 to 6,000 streams
Playlist info: They have a mix of lists, but they tend to feature SEO-based playlists. The campaign I tried landed a song in 2000s Throwbacks.
My take: I like these guys. I’ve worked primarily with Matt (for Spotify) and Luka (on TikTok campaigns), and they’ve always been very communicative – plus they’ve gotten pretty good results.
I’m planning to write a standalone review of their service soon, but for now, here’s the overview: I ran a Starter-level campaign that drove four playlist placements and around 10,000 streams (with more trickling in over time after the song was removed from the lists).
The lists weren’t a) as engaged as some others I’ve seen or b) as genre-targeted as I think is ideal – but they were all legitimate, with streams that clearly came from real people, and while they didn’t drive incredible long-term growth, there was some waterfall into Spotify Radio plays.
I’ve got YouGrow in fourth place here primarily because, for the level of service and results that they offer, they’re incredibly cost-effective. If you’re looking to test the waters of playlisting and don’t want to pay for a $300 campaign, these guys are a great option.
You can check out YouGrow here.
5. SubmitHub
Cost: Starts at $2 per playlist submission
Playlist info: They have an extensive range of small playlist curators across a wide variety of niches. Campaigns I’ve run on SubmitHub have landed songs in lists like Melodic Rap, Aesthetic Era, and Weekend Mood.
My take: Overall, I think SubmitHub is awesome.
Yes, there are haters out there, and yes, their model (where you pay $2 to have curators review your track) has its drawbacks – but I think their biggest effect has been to open up direct, legitimate lines of communication between curators and artists, and all flaws aside, I think that’s very cool.
You can read our full review of SubmitHub here, and if you decide to use the platform, I’d recommend checking out our guide on how to do it effectively. The gist is that they’re much more than a playlisting service, really; they also feature blog curators and influencers on their platform. (I actually view them primarily as a PR tool.)
Like Playlist Push, they have a vast network of curators. Unlike Playlist Push, though, SubmitHub allows you to target individual curators directly. You buy credits (for around $2 each, depending on the package) and then you can literally pick the exact curators you pitch to. This ensures that you get on playlists that are what you deem a good fit.
The drawback with SubmitHub is twofold: 1) They don’t guarantee results, so it’s not uncommon to pay money and get nothing back, and 2) because they don’t pay their curators as much as some of their competitors, I’ve found that the biggest playlisters have mostly migrated to other networks. You’ll rarely drive a ton of streams on this platform.
But if you’re starting out and are looking to connect directly with niche-specific curators who can help you along the way, I’m not sure there’s a better option than SubmitHub for facilitating those relationships.
You can check out SubmitHub here. (And if you use that link, you’ll get a 10% discount on credits.)
6. Moonstrive Media
Cost: Starts at $69 for placement on lists with 50k total followers
Playlist info: They focus exclusively on SEO-based playlists. The campaign I ran with them garnered placement in lists like Canciones en ingles bonitas and Sundays Best.
My take: These guys are one of the new(er) players on the playlisting scene – at least, in terms of front-facing work. According to their founder, Janik, they actually ran campaigns behind-the-scenes for a bunch of labels and agencies over the years before striking out on their own.
I’ve got a full review on this agency here, but the most notable thing is that they focus exclusively on SEO-based playlists (the ones that show up when you search in Spotify’s search bar). Like Indie Music Academy, the guys at Moonstrive believe that these types of lists tend to be the best performers.
In terms of engagement, their lists pretty much live up to the hype. The campaign I ran with them, which would’ve cost about $339, generated upward of 25,000 streams – which is pretty impressive. And while the placements weren’t all phenomenal genre fits, they were all legitimate lists with real, human listeners.
Last note: I’d recommend checking out additional reviews of their campaigns by Brian Hazard (who is awesome) and Andrew Southworth (who is also awesome). Put those two reviews together with mine, and I think you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you can expect if you choose to work with this service.
You can check out Moonstrive here. (And you can use the code twostorymedia to get 5% off.)
7. Partnered Projects
Cost: Starts at $49.95 for 2.5-4k streams. Cost varies by the genre of your song.
Playlist info: I’m actively running a campaign with these guys and will update this when it’s done.
My take: Like Moonstrive, Partnered Projects is a newer player on the playlisting scene. I stumbled across them a few months ago and honestly thought they looked a little dodgy – their price point for an entry-level package is suspiciously low, they don’t have extensive documentation on their process (like, say, Indie Music Academy), and they don’t have a ton of existing reviews online. So I tagged them in my mind as “fishy” and just moved on.
But then I heard more about them from Andrew Southworth, who, as previously mentioned, is awesome.
Andrew told me that the guys behind Partnered have been running major-label campaigns for a while, and that he was going to be personally partnering with them to serve emerging indie artists (he’s a Facebook ads wizard). I trust Andrew, and that conversation basically convinced me that a) Partnered Projects is legit and b) I should give them a shot.
I’m currently running a campaign with them, and I’ll update this blurb when the results are in. Details to come, but for now I’m comfortable including them as one of the top playlisting services in 2023.
You can check out Partnered Projects here.
8. Groover
Cost: Starts at $2 per playlist submission
Playlist info: Like SubmitHub, they have an extensive network of small curators across a wide range of niches. Songs I’ve run through Groover have gotten on playlists like POP ROCK and Only Indie Music.
My take: They probably aren’t going to blow up your streaming numbers, but still, I like Groover.
They’re the industry challenger to SubmitHub, and they function pretty similarly; you pay $2 to send your song to curators, you get control over the curators that you send your music to, and you get to read a bunch of lame rejection notes.
You can read my full review of Groover for more info on how it all works (and what I mean by lame rejection ha).
As with SubmitHub, they aren’t primarily a playlisting service, and consequently I’ve found that most of the playlist curators on Groover are smaller than those on other platforms. In other words, you probably won’t land on a list with 500,000 followers. But as with SubmitHub, you will have the opportunity to connect directly with curators and hand-select best fits for your music.
You can check out Groover here. (And you can use code TWOSTORYMELODYVIP to get a 10% discount.)
9. Omari MC
Cost: Starts at $77 for placements in 1-7 playlists resulting in 500 to 5,000 streams
Playlist info: They have a mixed assortment of playlists, including some SEO-based lists and some ad-driven lists. My last campaign with Omari got a song placed in lists like Happy Songs and Éxitos 80s y 90s En Inglés.
My take: Omari was actually the first playlisting service that I tried. I was seeing his ads everywhere – seriously, I felt like I couldn’t escape him – and so eventually I caved and tried a campaign.
That first campaign actually went very well. I think Omari was a) on the cutting edge of playlisting back in the day, and b) really focused on that specific service. But in the years since, I’ve been a little less impressed as I’ve run subsequent campaigns. You can read our latest review here. The results are still organic and the lists aren’t bad – but there are just other companies out there that have higher engagement more consistently, at least in my recent experience.
(I think that this is partly because Omari has diversified his company to include an extensive range of services, so playlisting hasn’t been the sole focus for a little while. But that’s just conjecture on my part.)
The benefit of Omari, though, is that his agency is very efficient (results come in fast) and very affordable.
Oh, another thing I like about this agency and that’s worth noting is that they only work with clean songs. So, fair warning: Don’t submit something explicit if you don’t want to get rejected.
You can check out Omari MC here.
10. Daimoon Media
Cost: Starts at $57 for placement in lists totaling 20,000 to 60,000 followers with expected results of 1,500 to 6,000 streams.
Playlist info: They don’t exclusively rely on SEO-based lists, but that’s what most of my results with them have been. The campaign I ran with them got placed in lists including House Chill Out Music and After Soundtrack.
My take: If you’re based in Europe and make rap, pop, or electronic music, I think these guys are a solid option.
My mid-level campaign with them drove about 30,000 streams, which, honestly, was more than I expected. You can read the full review of the experience here, but all in all I was solidly impressed. The lists were legitimate, and they all had respectable engagement.
The reason I don’t have Daimoon higher on the list is that they have a pretty targeted genre range; they do best with more mainstream stuff, like rap, pop, and EDM. Also, this is subjective for me, but they’re based in the Netherlands, and that fact shows up in the streaming data – more streams were international with Daimoon as compared against some of the options I’ve got ranked higher on this list.
But if you’re a European artist in one of their target genres, they’re definitely worth considering.
You can check out Daimoon Media here.
11. SubmitLink
Cost: Starts at $1 per playlist submission
Playlist info: They’re like SubmitHub but with a small network of curators. The campaign I ran with them didn’t result in any placements, but options on the network include lists like WORKOUT PLAYLIST and Indie Flow.
My take: This playlisting service an interesting one – and for more reasons than the fact that the company’s URL ends in the eccentric extension “ink.”
I’ve been in contact with Aaron, the founder of SubmitLink, for a little while, primarily because I really like his other platform, Artist Tools; I’ve found it super helpful for doing DIY playlisting a playlist research. So when Aaron launched a playlist submission platform, I was naturally curious to give it a try – and I was simultaneously impressed and disappointed.
I’ll start with the bad, first: I submitted to 13 playlists and I didn’t get any placements. So that was a downer.
But I was still impressed with the service, for a few reasons:
1) It’s really transparent – like SubmitHub, you get detailed information on every curator, and you can manually select who you’re pitching to. That’s all cool stuff.
2) Unlike SubmitHub, this platform is specifically targeted toward playlisting – rather than featuring a wide range of curators across blogs and social media, they’re locked into playlisting. Relatedly, they pay their curators pretty well; whereas the most you can get as a curator on SubmitHub is $3 per review, you can get up to $15 per song on SubmitLink, which I think will sway some of the bigger lists in the long run.
Ultimately, I think the upside for this platform is to be a mix of SubmitHub and Playlist Push: Transparent and controllable like SubmitHub, but focused on big playlist curators (and therefore more impactful for streaming) like Playlist Push. So kind of the best of both worlds.
For now, I’ve got it down at the bottom of the list because the curator pool is small. But the future is bright.
You can check out SubmitLink here.
Final thoughts on playlisting services
And that does it for my breakdown on the top playlisting services in 2023.
I’ll end with a couple of final (hopefully encouraging) notes:
Playlisting should not be your only marketing strategy. It’s a path toward more streams – nothing more or less than that. If all you ever do is pay for playlist promotion, you’ll have a hard time building a real fanbase that cares about your art. Again, even for streaming, specifically, I’d recommend a multi-pronged approach.
Treat playlisting as a means toward reaching more ears, but don’t treat it as the be-all, end-all. At the very least, if you want to build a community around your artistry, you’ll need to create ways for your fans to go deeper with you.
Relatedly…
Streaming numbers aren’t everything. Sure, they make you feel good, and yes, they do (hopefully) represent real people who are listening to your music.
But the point isn’t to have a bunch of digits next to your song on a screen. It’s to connect with people in a meaningful way. Relationships are the whole point of everything. Streams are a means toward that end, but they aren’t the end in itself.
What I’m really trying to say is this: Whether your next playlisting campaign blasts off or bombs, don’t lose heart. Your music matters either way.
Here’s wishing you good luck as you make it and market it.
