How to Create a Spotify Pitch That Works? – Playlist Pitching Guide with Examples and Tips

In this article, we give DIY musicians, artist managers, and labels three tips on how to pitch Spotify using Cyanite. Cyanite is an AI tool that lets you analyze your music for a direct and objective opinion.

There are several types of playlists and you can get your track on each one of them. We distinguish between the following playlists:

1. algorithm-based playlists (Spotify);
2. independent playlists (external bloggers & curators);
3. editorial playlists (Spotify’s curators).

We’ll focus on the last two and provide playlist pitch template using Cyanite. Independent playlists usually have their own websites, as well as contact details somewhere on the website. They would host their playlist on a multitude of platforms including Spotify.

Editorial playlists on Spotify are created by Spotify editors. These playlists can only be accessed via the portal Spotify for Artists. For those who do not yet know how the portal works, here are two quick guides by Spotify and Spinnup.

Tip: If you submit a track on Spotify for Artists at least seven days before the release, it is included in the Release Radar of the artist’s followers.

Here Cyanite comes into play, as it improves the quality of your pitch and makes things more smooth and productive. 

Our tips on how to pitch a playlist using Cyanite include:

1. Identify the strongest emotions of the song;
2. Find the right words for the Spotify song description;
3. Filter out the most suitable playlists. 

Let’s explore these steps in detail.

Here is a scheme that shows how the emotions of Spotify for Artists can be equated with the emotions on Cyanite.

Dan Glaunsinger, an artist manager at daynight.music, used Cyanite when submitting artist SACCC to Spotify for Artists. Dan remembers that choosing emotions has always been one of the most difficult parts for him. He says: “The objective view of  Cyanite’s AI helps a lot“.

Additionally, some of Spotify’s playlists are mood-based, so mood match is the first criteria editors look at. Stephen Cirino emphasizes the relevance of emotion selection in his article on the pitching process: “Choosing the right moods to match your song can help get your music in front of curators for mood-focused playlists such as Mood Booster, Dreamy Vibes, Sad Indie and more“.

Additionally, you can choose and match genres, sub-genres, and instruments using Cyanite. Here is the screenshot of the song analysis with all the data:

Yes, it is all about the context. Especially when filling in that big blank space where you can describe the song to the editors. Everything that gives the editors extra background information about the song has to be packed in here. In the end, it makes their work easier. 

For that, Cyanite’s Augmented Keywords are a great choice. They are pooled from 1,500 music describing terms featuring, genres and moods but also rather abstract terms such as contexts, situations, use cases, and activities.

We give more detailed instructions and Spotify playlist pitch example in the article: How to Write Press Releases and Music Pitches with Cyanite.

AWAL, the distributor and label of Kobalt, writes: “It also requires self-classification, which might offer additional value to a company that hopes to match a listener’s mood with the appropriate soundtrack, as quickly and accurately as possible“. With the company, of course, Spotify is meant.

A big part of how listeners experience a song is the way it develops and what turns it takes over the duration of the track. As the name suggests, the Dynamic Emotion Analysis does not only show you what moods a song is made of. It maps the most characteristic peaks and lows and all developments in between. This gives you the data-supported vocabulary to describe certain dynamics of your song and the fine little details that let it stand out. See the screenshot below.

Additionally, to write a text pitch you can use Cyanite Augmented Keywords. These are the keywords that characterize a song in addition to other data on moods, genre, energy level and etc.

You can use these keywords to write a compelling text pitch or just copy and paste them into one of the AI writers and the software will write it for you. With some human editing, current AI writing tools can produce compelling song descriptions and pitches. We tried using a “product description” option and here is the result for Tom Odell’s Grow Old with Me. 

Tom Odell’s soothing new song is the perfect soundtrack for any emotional situation. It reminds you that beauty, love, and joy are always close by and will always be a part of your life. The acoustic guitar and piano melodies help create a calm and relaxed atmosphere where you can’t help but feel comfortable. Tom Odell has the power to move you through music. Take the time to experience Grow Old With.

With Cyanite, we considered the first 10 tracks from the popular playlists Deep Focus and Motivation Monday. As Cyanite and Spotify accounts are connected, selecting tracks for the analysis is very convenient.

We also fully analyzed Spotify New Music Friday playlist, so if you want to see the results of the analysis you can download a free data sheet here. 

So how exactly can I use this analysis for myself as an artist or artist manager in playlist pitching? As we know, Spotify for Artists does not allow you to directly suggest the editorial playlists you would like to get into. The Spotify editors have control here. Fortunately, there are also many public playlists put together by independent curators, such as Monday to Monday, Indietronic or Songpickr. Playlists like Soundplate or Indiemono even offer their own ways to submit music via their websites.

Long story short: find out the general vibe of a playlist, compare it to the moods in your song and figure out which playlists fit best. Then consider all the other relevant factors such as genre, country, and cultural influence and put your time into messaging only the right curators.

How to best approach these indie curators is well described here and for more great tips on how to promote your music check out this article by Studio Frequencies.

That’s why it is important to continue your promotional efforts after the release and use other platforms including social media. We explain why using ads and social media outreach is so important for Spotify editors in the article: How to Create Custom Audiences for Pre-Release Music Campaigns in Facebook, Instagram, and Google.

Nevertheless, because playlists have such an influence on the music industry, it’s a topic that needs critical discussion. In addition to our guide, we recommend these readings on Spotify curatorial practices and playlisting on Musically and BestFriendsClub.

Ultimately, the success with playlist pitching comes with finding the right fit and putting work into correctly tagging the song and writing a song description. You can do that manually or you can use tools like Cyanite if you’re tired of listening to the same track over and over again or if you have large volumes of music to pitch. 

Please contact us with any questions about our Cyanite AI via mail@cyanite.ai. You can also directly book a web session with Cyanite co-founder Markus here.

If you want to get the first grip on Cyanite’s technology, you can also register for our free web app to analyze music and try similarity searches without any coding needed.