How to Get One Listener to Stream Your Whole Catalog With an Artist Playlist

When I wrote this, I was running two very similar ad campaigns for two musicians, and they brought very different results.

One artist was promoting his first single. The other was promoting 6 songs at the same time.

If you only have one song out, a direct link to that song might be the best option. But if you have several songs, this is the most effective way to promote your music from now on. It works for any kind of promotion, and especially for links you share on social media.

The problem with sharing one song

Here's what a lot of musicians do. They release a song, copy the Spotify link and send it to their fans.

Sounds fine, right? The problem is that once the listener finishes the song, Spotify automatically plays a song by another artist. That's a huge missed opportunity.

You don't want one stream. You want every listener to keep going through your whole catalog. And the fix is simple.

Step 1: make a playlist with all your music

Make a playlist with every song you've released and call it "This Is [Your Artist Name]".

Step 2: design a cover that stands out

Open Canva and design a clean, eye-catching cover. Here's how to do it in two minutes:

• Remove the background from your profile picture.
• Place it in the center.
• Use the font Poppins for the text.
• Make a rectangle in your brand color and move it to the background.
• Add the Spotify logo in the top left corner.

Now your playlist looks professional and attracts more listeners. For more on the rest of your profile, read how to make your Spotify profile stand out.

Step 3: use a deep link

Instead of sharing a regular song link, use a deep link that opens your playlist and starts playing your new song right away.

You can make one for free with Linkfire's link builder. Paste your song's link and your playlist's link, click continue, and you get a new link to share.

Now every time someone taps your link on their phone, your song plays inside your playlist, and your other songs follow it.

Bonus: if they follow the playlist, they'll probably come back and stream your catalog again and again.

Advanced tip: run ads to your playlist

Instead of running ads to one song, run them to your artist playlist using the deep link.

Why? For every dollar you spend, instead of getting one stream, you could get a listener who plays all your songs. More streams and more engaged listeners send Spotify stronger signals, and that helps you land on more algorithmic playlists.

I show how I set up campaigns like this, step by step, in my course Label Level Ads.

One link for everything

Stop linking to a single song. From now on, the link in your bio, the link you send to fans and the link in your ads should all lead to your artist playlist.