Instead of dunking on Spotify, here’s a little thread of things artists can do to game the most out of it...

1 - Albums are irrelevant to Spotify. Through Spotify for Artists you can submit 1 song per release for playlist consideration, this track also becomes your pick for the Release Radar.
Anecdotally this 1 song gets 10x streams Vs album cuts so anything more than 1 is a waste.

2 - Playlist submission system struggles if you release too quickly, the sweet spot is about a 4 week gap. Also your track has to reach Spotify 1 week before release if you want to submit. So you need to be getting your tracks to distro at least a fortnight ahead of release.

3a - You only get paid for the 31st second so intros are key, and as the algorithm itself is designed to keep people on the platform, (not strictly to show people what they like, more to avoid what they don’t like), anything you can do to avoid people hitting skip is golden!

3b - So you have a couple of options, lead with the hook (if you’ve got a good hook that is) OR or the gentle fade sneaky intro. As a lot of Spotify listening is passive/background noise, the gentle intro is probably the best skip avoidance tool.

4 - The algorithm doesn’t only care about plays, other interactions are important to. Getting friends/family/your audience to like / add to personal playlists / save songs all add to your score and increase the chances of the algorithm caring about your music.

5 - Ultimately remember that your music is not the product. Spotify Premium is the product, your music is just a tool for Spotify to drive traffic toward their product. So sharing your Spotify urls on social media is something the algorithm is positively wet for.

Anyway I hope that helps, I’m gonna go vomit for a bit then maybe have a bit of a cry... maybe at the same time... a “cromit” if you will.