Real Spotify playlist placement

100% Organic Spotify Playlist Promotion

Get Your Music on Legitimate Spotify Playlists to Grow Your Fanbase

Tap into the same network of influencers that major record labels use to spread their reach and find new fans:

• 100% Real & Organic Human Listeners
• No Bots, Low-Quality Ads, or Engagement Schemes
• Our Unique Approach is powered by Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & is Spotify Terms of Service (TOS) compliant which means you never risk the safety of your music
• All with a 100% Refund Guarantee

Have you ever wondered "what is the best way to get more streams on Spotify?"

Most independent artists write incredible songs but they are missing the promotion method that puts their music in front of new fans in a way that matters.

They try dozens of lackluster promotion methods from:

1. Posting to their friends on social media
2. Trying their hands at Facebook and YouTube ads
3. Even “boosting" a post to try and overcome the algorithm won’t work

Do you see the common thread in these in-effective marketing attempts?

The listener needs to stop watching that cat video (or whatever they were doing) and switch apps in order to stream your music… which is not how they wanted to spend their time in the first place!

This is called "interruption marketing" and this is what we as artists default to because it's what we see everywhere around us.

The only difference is that corporations spend millions on "interruption marketing" every week.

You can't copy a corporation because you are not a corporation.

You are an independent musician (and you don't have millions to spend on Facebook ads either).

You need a different strategy.

Thankfully, there is a marketing principle that has been well-known by established marketers for decades:

☞ The most cost-effective way to grow a platform is to advertise directly on that platform.

This is the secret to massive results—stop trying to convince people to jump from one platform to another. Few artists realize this this and are frustrated when they can’t get anyone to listen to their songs on Spotify.

The answer?

Show your music to thousands of listeners who are already looking for new music!

This is why Spotify Playlist Promotion is so effective and why you should start using playlist promotion in your music marketing strategy.

There's just one problem...

Spotify Promotion companies are sketchy

I hate to be the bringer of bad news.

As someone who has been on playlists before

And has gotten artists thousands of streams from playlists

Here is the sad reality:

• Most Spotify Playlists don't provide you with real listeners
• The big playlist companies are a well-oiled “Bot” machine that simply drive-up your Spotify numbers artificially (without any real fans)
• If your playlist doesn’t bring the right listeners, it will actually HURT your Spotify algorithm
• And if you use low-quality, low-priced Spotify promotion services, you can actually get BANNED from Spotify all-together

I think you know the ones I’m talking about.

They are the guys DMing you on Instagram trying to sell you $45 dollar Spotify promotion with no reputable company backing their claims.

Or the friendly-looking faces running Instagram and Facebook ads claiming they have thousands of happy customers when in reality it’s all a front to scam artists into purchasing low-quality, bot-runned streams.

It’s all fake.

And fake streams don’t build your fan base.

Without real people listening, you can’t begin to take them on your Fan Journey.

Not only that...

Without real people listening, you can’t build reliable demographic information

Or carve your digital fingerprint into the Spotify “Related Artists” algorithm.’

How to attract the right type of listeners (not just empty streams)

So who are the right type of listeners? And how do you get them to listen to your music on Spotify?

Well most artists will assume that getting on playlists with the right “Genre” is good enough and it will build their Spotify Algorithm.

But that’s actually not enough and Spotify doesn’t care about Genre as much as you’d think.

What Spotify actually cares about is the quality of this listener and the actions they perform.

Here’s what a quality Spotify listener does:

• They use the Spotify search bar
• They consume multiple types of music across multiple genres
• They drag songs into their own playlist libraries
• And they click the heart button next to your song

You need a listener who does all these things…

Which means even getting on a playlist within your genre could actually be a bad thing if you’re not getting active users of the Spotify App.

I shelled out my own money to show you the difference between bot traffic and real followers...

Since you've read this far, it seems appropriate to finally introduce myself.

My name is Ryan Waczek and I'm an Emmy-Award Winning musician and the founder of the Indie Music Academy (more on that later).

It’s no secret that against low-quality Spotify placements...

And if you’ve ever had a conversation with me, I might have told you that I was on the hunt for a legitimate, reputable, Spotify Playlist company.

And to this day, I haven’t found any that I would recommend.

And believe me, I've looked HARD and spent thousands in the process, testing, and vetting...

All of them falling short:

SubmitHub

Playlist Push

And others that I won’t name specifically but you probably see his ads too on Instagram….

Not a single one of them delivered real engagement.

Not a single one brought me real fans that I could send on my Fan Journey.

Not until I took matters into my own hands.

I was fed up with not finding a Spotify Playlisting solution for myself so I went out and did what most are unwilling to do:

I partnered with the same Los Angeles - based marketing companies that Major Record Labels use to get their artists placed on legitimate, influencer-owned playlists.

And trust me guys,

Record labels don't mess around with bots when it comes to building the audiences of their artists.

Record labels need real fans otherwise they go out of business.

The very first time I spoke with them, I told them: "I don't mess around with fake plays... and if I even suspect that they were sending bot traffic, we were done."

Long story short guys,

My very first experience ended with a Major placement on the BBC Hulu Original "Normal People" with my song RIGHT NEXT to Selena Gomez and other household names.

I went on to do 6 more campaigns and actually triggered the Spotify "Radio" Algorithm which gives me thousands of free streams every week directly to my songs.

I'm not saying that these results are typical...

But what I am saying is this is finally the real deal.

Not a bot-farm.

Not a scam.

Once I got a real placement, fans started DMing me on Instagram!

And I know for a fact that they are discovering me on Spotify because I'm even getting emails saying "I found your song on ___ playlist"

That's what the Fan Journey is all about!

And this had never happened before on other playlists (because bots don't care about you).

So what I'm about to share with you is direct access to the Los Angeles promotion companies that I've partnered with.

They usually only deal with Record Labels, but they've agreed to let Indie Music Academy students submit their music on this page only.

(This is not just marketing mumbo jumbo, they actually have only partnered with me and no other promotion service.)

So if you have been searching for legitimate and safe Spotify Playlist Promotion like I have...

That actually grows your popularity with real fans and not bots...

Then continue below to learn more about the promotion packages that I've negotiated in advance for you.

It all comes with a delivery guarantee: which means you get refunded the difference if for some reason your song can't get placed.

And my personal favorite: a 100% no "bot" guarantee too!

Keep reading below to learn about the types of playlists we work with and how to start promoting your song!

Here are the broad playlist categories your music could be placed in...

Many Spotify listeners discover new songs searching by mood, whether it be "Relaxing Music," "Sad Songs," or "Happy Hits," our goal is to make your music the answer to their search. Using this technique allows for powerful connection as fans discover your song alongside many of their favorite artists and genres.

Much like seasons, Spotify is constantly changing throughout the year. Because of this, "Seasonal Playlists" are some of the most active and valuable on the platform (if you can time it right). From "Summer Vibes" to "Christmas Coffeehouse," season-based playlists organically grow as listeners set the soundtrack to their lives every month and our aim is to make sure you benefit from these seasonal trends.

These are not curated by Spotify… but they are the next best thing. Only about 1% of Influener-Owned Genre playlists pass our test for legitimacy and we can pitch anything from EDM, Rap, Rock, Indie and more! You can expect these placements to loosely match your musical genre or a complementary genre with audience overlap.

The “secret weapon” of major record labels are “Soundtrack Playlists” because they are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) hotspots. What is SEO? These are some of Spotify’s most active playlists because when music lovers from around the world search for their favorite movies, TV shows, and/or video games, these playlists appear first in the search results! We want your song to be the answer to their search so our goal is to place you in these highly active streams of traffic.

For Electronic and EDM artists, finding legitimate Spotify Promotion can be next to impossible without risking your music on bot-driven playlists. But we’ve found a 100% safe and organic solution “Festival Playlists.” Our aim is to match your music with a popular music festival that gets thousands of searches each month. These playlists are highly active when it’s festival season, but maintain a healthy and organic listenership throughout the year.

Internet culture is driving music discovery unlike ever before in history and Spotify listeners want to listen to their favorite discoveries on repeat. That is why “Social & Viral” playlists are getting organic traffic through search leading to playlists like “TikTok Viral Hits” and the exposure is off-the-charts! Our aim is for your music to benefit from this social phenomenon that is happening right now in the music industry for maximum exposure.

Did you know that it's illegal to pay to get on a playlist? Don't worry, the FBI isn't going to come knocking! However, you could be risking the safety of your music by breaking the Spotify Terms of Service. Many of our competitors don't care about this rule and unknowing artists have found their music to be removed from Spotify as a consequence of "payola." That's why we do things completely differently.

Paying to be placed onto a playlist is a "no-no" if you want to build an audience ethically without the risk of getting banned and your music removed. With us you'll never have to worry about that because we use "influencer marketing" which is 100% legal and ethical. "Influencer Marketing" is where we hire individuals with an audience to back your song with their support. These influencers (who own a variety of playlists) will use their influence and traffic to bring brand new listeners to your song. We own ZERO playlists so there is no conflict of interest and ZERO legal gray area.

The word "organic" in regards to Spotify Promotion has had its very meaning stripped by other promotion companies claiming to be one thing but doing another. Even well-known scams will boldly claim "organic" front and center on their website. Here at the Indie Music Academy, we take “Organic” very seriously. Once we pitch your song and capture the attention of an influencer, the influencer alone decides which of their playlists best fits your song. We don't manufacture opportunities for songs that are undeserving just for a quick buck. If the influencer doesn’t have any playlists that fit your song, then we try someone new until the perfect marriage is made—or you receive a full refund.

If we are unable to secure an influencer you will receive 100% of your money back.

And, if for some reason we are not able to deliver on the promised number of streams, we will refund the difference.

We went undercover and purchased "real organic promotion" from some of our competitors. In reality, the product they delivered was far from authentic. I'll let the analytics speak for itself in this side-by-side comparison.

(Screenshots taken from AWAL distribution.)

Bots don't interact with your music the way humans do. See how 97% of streams are NOT on Desktop or Mobile? These are fake streams and will not grow your music career.

See the difference? Real influencer marketing on your Spotify profile means that real humans will listen to your music and interact with you. This is why it's so crucial to know the difference.

We know that learning about how to promote on Spotify can be overwhelming in the beginning without help. That's why I've filmed three videos that will catch you up on everything you need to know about how Spotify Playlists work!

My name is Ryan Waczek and I've cracked the Spotify code for independent artists like you, helping to get my artists on Spotify's Fresh Finds, Poptronix, Release Radar, Discover Weekly, Algorithmic "Radio" playlists, and 3rd-Party playlists.

I've also harnessed the power of Facebook and Instagram marketing to reach to thousands of fans worldwide through strategic music marketing techniques.

In 2018 I got the artists on my record label streamed for over 1 Million minutes through successfully triggering the Spotify Algorithm for multiple artists. I started the Indie Music Academy to teach independent artists how to market their music the right way.

Which translates into income, fans, collabs, opportunities, and being a real contender in the music industry!

Here is just ONE of my music income streams:
Source: Soundbetter.com

Unlike other playlisting companies, we don't operate in the dark. You can read about our entire playlist pitching process as well as how we identify bot playlists to avoid. 

We want you to feel 100% confident in your purchase. That's why we've answered pages of questions in advance so you can know exactly what to expect. 

We accept your song information and payment through our secure payment processor. We work with your budget to secure placement opportunities with our network of influencers with a combined reach of 10 million fans.

We take your song to our exclusive network of vetted influencers to get you quality placements on highly-engaged Spotify playlists. Your song will stay in those playlists for as long as it takes to reach the desired campaign goal! We actively work on your behalf to get you the fan visibility you need.

You see increased engagement not only on Spotify, but in your entire music ecosystem because your music will be heard by real fans who are ready to be taken on your Fan Journey!

TRUSTED BY OVER 300 STUDENTS, 10,000 SUBSCRIBERS, AND 30,000 MONTHLY READERS AS THE GO-TO MUSIC MARKETING RESOURCE IN THE US, CANADA, AND INTERNATIONALLY.

 To preserve the quality of our influencer relationships, we reserve the right to decline service to artists that submit low-quality recordings.

We will continue promoting your music with our network of influencers until you exceed the number of guaranteed streams listed below.
 Learn why we guarantee streams.

TLDR: Our guarantee is more of a money-back policy to protect your money rather than a guarantee of results. Bad quality recordings that get rejected won't get the promised number streams and we will refund in that scenario. 

This is correct, “guaranteed streams” have a bad reputation because it usually indicates that you’ll just have your song thrown into the “bot machine” until you get the guaranteed number you pay for. 

AKA — these other guys guarantee that you'll get "results" because they know the streams are fake and they can manipulate the numbers.

Our guarantee works in the opposite way, let me explain:

• Our process involves real humans.  We contact influencers and pitch your song onto highly active playlists. (Influencers are people who own popular playlists on Spotify)

• Since musical taste varies from person to person, each campaign will have a very different outcome depending on the song that you submit with us. We have no clue how many streams you'll actually get, and sometimes songs get flat out rejected by the influencers resulting in NO placement. 

So why have a guarantee for an exact number of streams?

Well, for us “guaranteed streams” is more of a money-back policy rather than a guarantee of results. 

Since we use real organic promotion, we can NEVER guarantee "results"— but we CAN protect you and your money.

There is always a chance that your song might get rejected by some influencers, we don’t want you to pay for promotion and come away empty handed. Every song is different and we will continue to pitch your song until the guarantee is met. 

But here’s the great thing about it—if for some reason we can never get your song placed or hit the guarantee, then we refund you the difference. 

That way you never take on any risk when deciding to work with us.

Are you looking to book more shows? Engage more fans? Grow your audience? Have a promoter take notice? Even with clever marketing tactics, artists can only go so far with free strategies and word of mouth. Nearly every artist on radio and Billboard charts are utilizing some variation of paid marketing strategies to improve their results. Combined with your other strategies, promoting your music with Spotify playlists will help to take your song and your brand outreach to the next level.

The Indie Music Academy is currently the only Spotify Playlisting solution in the world to offer entirely organic and authentic audiences through a network of playlists ran by the world’s top curators and influencers. These playlists were grown using digital advertising and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is compliant and legal on all streaming platforms. Our competitors and other playlist networks are overrun by computer generated fake streams or “bots” as they are typically referred to. Typically these other companies sell you on “reach,” rather than a guarantee. When a service offers “reach,” they simply are referring to impressions. This does not mean that people are actually listening to your song. That service may sell you a package with one million listener reach, but only one thousand of them may actually click on your song to listen. With our minimum guarantee, you receive reliable results because we will continue pitching your songs to curators until the minimum is met or exceeded. 

There are an overwhelming amount of risky bot-driven playlists on Spotify and we would never want to risk jeopardizing your music career with a bad placement.

So with our campaigns we shoot for quality over quantity.

It’s better to have one dynamite playlist than to have 10 “not so great playlists” that might have bot activity so we try to reach your campaign goal with as few placements as possible. 

This might be different from what you might have experienced with other playlisting companies, but they do not vet playlists with the same scrutiny that we do. We follow a rigorous “Playlist Legitimacy Checklist” that actually disqualifies many playlists from our usage.

But we do this on purpose to protect you the artist, so you can be 100% certain that you will not endanger your career by working with us.

We wholeheartedly stand by this “less-is more” approach and will continue to pitch your song until the guaranteed number of streams is reached for your campaign.

Our process is very manual and is executed by our small team in Nashville and Los Angeles. 

Real humans handle all the listening, planning, and pitching for our clients, so as you can imagine, the process is not instantaneous.

Our influencers take the time they need to make sure your song finds the best placement so typically this takes 10 business days, (that’s Monday to Friday) sometimes when we have a high volume of placements to make it may take longer, don’t be alarmed we are going to find your song a home.

I know it can be scary paying for something and then a week later there are no visible results. But rest assured, our 100% money back guarantee has no expiration date and if we can’t hit your campaign goal, you are covered and completely safe.

Great question! When working with us, you’ll notice one big difference compared to other playlisting companies—we go for quality over quantity.

You might expect from a playilsting company to get you 10-15 placements on playlists with names like “Viral Pop” or “Rap Hits Today” that imitate the names of what you’d think would be a popular playlist by straight up copying the Spotify Curated Playlist names. 

But those playlists are highly suspect and we take a different approach. We don't shoot for a variety of placements because it's way too risky. Far too many playlists have bot activity and do not meet our Playlist Legitimacy Checklist.

Instead we target a few high-value & high-traffic playlists that rank high in the Spotify search.

If a Spotify Playlist can’t be “discovered” by an average user, then there is no way to validate that the traffic is high-quality and beneficial. This is why we place a heavy emphasis on Spotify Search Engine (SEO). 

We only pitch to influencers who have playlists that Organically Rank in the Spotify Search Engine for validated keywords. 

Playlists that do not rank in the Spotify Search Engine could have bot activity, low-quality Facebook traffic, or other types of risky and unethical practices. 

To get a behind the scenes look at our process, click here to read our in-depth Playlist Pitching Procedure.

We will always place your song in a playlist that is a good “fit.” However, genre is a very non-specific term on Spotify. (Just think of how many songs fall into the category of “Pop”).

So we approach things a bit differently and find placements based more on vibe, sound, & feel so your song will feel right among other songs that all appeal to the same type of listener—this gets you heard by the RIGHT AUDIENCE.

Remember, playlists are curated EXPERIENCES. And not all experiences are sorted by genre.

In fact, there is a misconception that has developed online that “you should only be in playlists that are an exact genre match.” 

While this is a good general rule, it has given birth to playlist scam artists creating bot driven playlists with titles like “Viral Rap Hits” and “Pop 2022” claiming that these playlists are what you need to “trigger the algorithm.”

We highly recommend that you don’t fall for this tactic because most of those playlists are widely unknown to the core Spotify user base and are artificially pumped full of fake streams and low-quality Facebook ads.

We believe that the most important qualifier for a “worthwhile” playlist is whether it ranks in the Spotify Search Engine because those are the most active and engaged listeners on the platform, period. 

So our order of operations goes: 

1. Playlist Ranks in the Spotify Search
2. Good match with your song as far as vibe, sound, & feel
3. Then genre takes a back seat

Remember, in order to stay within the Spotify Terms of Service, the influencer needs to be the one to decide where the song best fits. These influencers work with music professionally so you can trust they will make a good choice.

Hope that helps you understand our process. To learn more about how exactly we choose playlists, read our in-depth Playlist Pitching Procedure.

Yes! We love scheduling promotion campaigns in advance. If your song is not yet released, you can still complete the checkout process by placing a “Preview Link” (SoundCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or other) rather than a Spotify link. 

This will complete your order and get the process started with our team.

The next step happens the night before the release date. Most distributors provide a Spotify URL the day before your release. When you have that Spotify Song URL, simply email us your Spotify link to the song and we will have everything we need to begin!

We are proud to state that our marketing practices fall 100% in line with Spotify’s Terms of Service.

The Spotify Terms of Service (TOS) state that no artist can pay for their song to be put on a specific playlist.

This is why it’s dangerous to use non-established & sketchy companies who are more than willing to break this iron-clad rule, and risk your music getting taken down off of Spotify.

That’s why it’s our #1 priority to operate 100% within Spotify’s Terms of Service. For two reasons: to protect you as an artist, and secondly so we can uphold our reputation as the best boutique Spotify Playlisting option anywhere in the world. 

Here’s how we ethically work on your behalf to promote your music:

We are structured as a Spotify Promotion Agency and when you check out, you are hiring our services, expertise, and friendly team to reach the desired campaign goal. Your money is NOT sent to ANY playlister once you hit the checkout button. 

The type of campaign we run is simply an influencer marketing campaign which is not against Spotify's Terms of Service because it's a legitimate form of marketing.

On the other hand, paying a playlister directly in exchange for a spot is considered “Streaming Manipulation” in Spotify’s TOS. We do not do this and we NEVER recommend paying a playlister directly for a spot on a playlist. 

When promoting your song, we don't solicit any particular playlist or give any guarantee that you'll get a placement upon payment. Instead what we do is reach out to influencers who (independently from our desires) decide if they want to push the song to their audience. Once we share a song, it is completely up to them if they want to include it in a playlist they own (they can reject any song we show and often do). It's the same exact process as Submithub & Playlist push who also operate within Spotify's TOS with a similar “agency structure.”

We don't guarantee streams for any artist simply through purchasing a package. There is an approval process once you checkout and we refund artists who supply poor quality songs and recordings.

However, what we do guarantee is that if we feel we can meet the “guaranteed number of streams,” we will continue to pitch to influencers until we've hit the desired goal. 

So the guarantee is a satisfaction guarantee on our end once you're approved, not a guarantee of results on your end as an artist. 

Great question! Any artist can purchase a promotion package but low-quality submissions that we can’t work with are usually refunded shortly after purchase.

Here’s the reason behind why we work this way:

Although we are the best Spotify Promotion company available, we are not a Spotify Promotion Agency first and foremost. Education is our main focus, so we don’t advertise that we can look at hundreds of submissions every day. It would take bandwidth and time away from the students we have here at the academy.  

So it’s our practice to ask for payment first as a filter and give our attention solely to paying promotion clients. I know that’s probably not typical but your purchase is always completely covered with our 100% refund guarantee.

Our refund policy is clear, simple, and fair. Best of all, it never expires.

If we can’t place your song for any reason, we will give you a 100% refund. Even if we try to pitch your song for a year and we can’t get an influencer to back your track, you will still get a 100% refund because we could not deliver on our “guaranteed streams” promise.

See how we place the risk completely on our end? Either we deliver, or you don’t pay.

If we deliver equal to or greater than the number of streams for your package type, there will be no refunds since we completed our job in its entirety.

In the off-chance that we were only able to partially complete your campaign goal, we will then offer a partial refund equal to the percentage of streams we were able to acquire for you.

For example, if you purchase a 10,000 stream campaign and we can only find influencers that provide 5,000 streams, we will give you a 50% refund.

But here’s the great thing, our “stream guarantee” means that we will continue pitching your song as long as it takes to hit your campaign goal—even if this means months or years. So in most cases, a partial refund is not necessary—we will just continue to work harder and longer to get you the streams you need.

We want to place all the risk on our shoulders so that you don’t need to worry about whether or not you’ll get your money’s worth. You’re in good hands with us! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to reach out anytime by emailing [email protected].

Passionate about your music career and ready to operate with ease.

Done making excuses to your family about when your music is going to really “take off.”

Sick of seeing others in the industry being more successful than you (and less talented).

If you've been wondering what you're missing.

Ready for it to be easier.

Willing to go all in.