Spotify Release Radar playlists have been streamed 16B times + How to get music featured
Spotify’s Release Radar is turning 5 and with it comes word that the personalized new music discovery playlist has been streamed more than 16 billion times.
Release Radar is one of the top three most listened to personalized Spotify playlists globally, with 18- to 29-year-olds making up more than 50% of the audience.
Release Radar is also joining the Discover Weekly and On Repeat playlist as the third personalized playlist available for sponsorship. Disney+ has already signed on in the US to promote the Billie Eilish concert film “Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles.”
How To Get Your Music On Spotify’s Release Radar
Release Radar is updated every Friday with listeners getting new music from:
- Artists they follow
- Artists they listen to
- Other artists we think they’ll like
From Spotify: “Your followers get songs from your new release in their Release Radar. You don’t need to pitch a song to our playlist editors, but if you do we’ll include your pitched song in your followers’ Release Radar.”
IMPORTANT: Deliver and pitch new music at least 7 days before release day
Criteria from Spotify
- We don’t include a song in a listener’s Release Radar if they’ve already listened to it (but we might include another song from the release)
- We only include songs where you’re a main or featured artist (not remixer)
- We don’t include songs by Various Artists
- We don’t include re-releases of songs already on Spotify
- Each listener only gets one song per artist per week
- We’ll include a song for up to 4 weeks if a listener hasn’t heard it
MORE: Behind The Playlist Curtain: Your Questions Answered By Our Spotify Playlist Editors
Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
