Playlist Promotion Case Study: What the Numbers Show

A useful case study answers five questions: who the artist was before the campaign, what they did, what it cost, what changed, and how long it took. Many of the pages that rank for this topic are written by promoters, and they lead with the headline number. That is fine as a starting point, but you need the context around it.

When you read any case study, look for these pieces:

1. The starting point. Monthly listeners, follower count and release history before the campaign.
2. The pitch or outreach method. Who was contacted, with what message, and through which channel.
3. The timeline. Days or weeks from release to result.
4. Engagement beyond streams. Saves, follows, playlist adds by listeners, repeat listening.
5. Other activity running at the same time. Ads, press, social content, touring.

The published examples below are mostly from Spotify itself and from the music press. They are strongest on the first three points and thinner on cost, which is worth remembering when you compare them to your own budget.

Four published playlist case studies

24kGoldn: playlists after a social spark

Spotify for Artists describes how 24kGoldn's 2019 track "Valentino" first got buzz on TikTok. Placement on the Get Turnt and Most Necessary playlists then pushed the track past 187 million plays, and he had nearly 12 million monthly Spotify listeners before his debut album.

What it shows: playlists amplified a song that already had momentum. The song had an audience signal before the big placements arrived.

What it does not show: a repeatable path for an artist with no existing buzz. This is a major-platform story at a large scale, so treat it as a ceiling, not a benchmark.

Dreezy and Wiki: pitching at the tail end of a release cycle

In a Spotify for Artists post, Dreezy pitched "Chanel Slides" at the end of 2018 and it was selected for seven editorial playlists. Editorial and algorithmic playlists drove over 40 percent of all her streams. Wiki's manager pitched "Elixir" in November 2018, the track landed on multiple editorial and algorithmic playlists, and Wiki's Spotify followers grew 92 percent after that song's release.

What it shows: a pitch can open a door to both editorial and algorithmic surfaces, and the follower number is a better sign of lasting interest than plays alone.

What to notice: both pitches were made through Spotify's own tool, which costs nothing.

Conner Youngblood: a niche sound finds a mood playlist

Nashville artist Conner Youngblood pitched "Pizza Body" in 2019. Its dreamy folk and ambient instrumentation stood out to the editors of Mellow Morning. After that, he saw strong growth in monthly listeners and followers, and later landed on Acoustic Hits and Indie Chillout, which together have over 1.5 million followers.

What it shows: a distinct, well-described sound can beat a generic one. Playlists organized around a mood reward music that fits the mood cleanly.

Jay Wheeler: pitching plus paid reach

Spotify's Campaign Kit stories report that Jay Wheeler and his team at EMPIRE paired Marquee with playlist pitching across two albums. They reported nearly 300,000 saves, and playlist adds made up nearly 15% of total saves and playlist adds during the campaign windows across nine markets. Nearly one in four Marquee listeners went on to save or playlist a song, and the Trap Land editorial placement delivered nearly 100,000 streams.

What it shows: this is the clearest example here of a result with both pitching and paid promotion running together. It is useful because it reports saves, not only plays.

What to notice: you cannot credit the playlist alone. The result came from a combination of tools and a team.

The case study that did not end in a placement

Not every documented campaign lands. A SoundGuys article describes a band that released four singles ahead of a debut album on May 17, 2024, as part of a two-year campaign built with their manager, publisher, distributor and live agent. They allowed each track a six-week grace period so their distributor could talk with Spotify, sent refreshed press releases with each song, listed sold-out shows and radio wins, and uploaded current press shots. None of the songs secured a Spotify editorial playlist before the album launched.

This is useful for planning. Preparation and a patient timeline are part of the job, and a missed placement on one single is not a verdict on the music. It also shows how much effort goes into the groundwork before any pitch is sent.

What the numbers say about odds

It helps to know the base rate. Rolling Stone reported that Spotify's submission tool, launched in beta in July 2018, had added 72,379 artists to playlists for the first time, with songs submitted in 171 languages, and that around 20 percent of pitched tracks were accepted into at least one playlist. Spotify's own Playlisting page adds that more than 150,000 artists were playlisted for the first time across 2020 and 2021.

Two takeaways follow. First, pitching works often enough to be worth doing on every release. Second, most pitches do not land on the first try, so a plan that depends on one placement is fragile.

How the artists chose and pitched

Across these examples, the pitch itself is where the effort goes. Spotify's Playlisting page explains that every artist and team uses the same tool: you pick one song from an EP or album, give your hometown and current base, describe the song's story and meaning, choose up to three genres and submit.

Spotify's Steve Shirley added more detail in a Spotify for Artists post: you can describe a track with one top-level genre, up to three subgenres, up to three music cultures, up to two moods, up to two song styles and featured instruments, plus whether it is a cover, remix or instrumental. His explanation was that this metadata helps editors find the playlists a track suits, and that Spotify has more than 5,000 owned-and-operated playlists and gets large volumes of submissions every day.

FUGA's Craig May made the same point from the label-services side in Sandbox magazine: the work is about telling the story of the music, because Spotify profiles only a handful of new releases each week.

The pattern is consistent. Specific, honest metadata plus a clear story beats a vague submission. If you want help with the wording, our guide on how to write a playlist pitch walks through it line by line.

Costs, ads and what else contributed

The published case studies say little about spend, and that is the biggest gap in the genre. Spotify's own stories mention tools like Marquee and a label team, but they do not give you a budget you can copy. When a promoter's page quotes a daily streams figure without a cost, it is incomplete.

So build your own cost picture before you compare yourself with anyone:

• Pitching tools and subscriptions. A recurring monthly fee you can plan around.
• Ads or paid reach. Track this separately so you know which results it drove.
• Content and visuals. Press shots, short video, artwork.
• Time. Manual outreach to curators takes hours per release.

Keep a simple sheet with spend on one side and saves, follows and listeners on the other. After two or three releases, you will have a case study of your own that is worth more than any you read online.

Do the results show real engagement?

Plays are the easiest number to quote and the least informative. The examples above point to better signals:

When you review your own campaign, check these in Spotify for Artists a few weeks after release, not just in the first few days. A spike that fades by week three looks very different from a slow climb.

How to judge whether a reported result is credible

A promoter's headline, such as thousands of daily streams in a month, deserves a short checklist before you believe it applies to you.

1. Is the artist named and checkable? You should be able to find their Spotify profile and see the trend.
2. Does it report saves and followers? If it only shows plays, the picture is partial.
3. Is the cost stated? No cost means you cannot judge the return.
4. Were other channels running? Ads, press and social posts all muddy attribution.
5. Does it promise placement? This is the biggest red flag, covered next.

Risks and Spotify policy

This is the part that protects your catalog, so read it before you spend anything.

Spotify's terms prohibit paying for playlist placements, including compensating curators to add tracks. According to Promoly, violations can lead to account suspension, removed music or lost royalties.

On the payout side, Proton's help center notes that in April 2024 Spotify changed payouts to discourage artificial streaming. It says Spotify deducts earnings for flagged tracks, and that a service that finds boosted play counts from automated or fraudulent means may remove an entire catalog.

Novecore's founder and COO Matthias Merkel warned that the biggest red flag is a guarantee of playlist placement. His reasoning: promoters are not the decision makers, many work through their own or partner playlists, which Spotify prohibits, and some use bots. He also noted that inorganic streams can confuse the algorithms that recommend you to real listeners.

The safe approach is straightforward:

• Pitch to real, human-curated playlists with a message that explains why the song fits.
• Never pay a person for a guaranteed add.
• Check a playlist's follower and listener patterns before you submit.
• Walk away from anyone selling a fixed number of streams.

Lessons you can apply to your next release

Pulling the cases together gives you a practical routine.

1. Start early. Spotify's tool is built for unreleased music, and the band in the SoundGuys case planned across months, not days.
2. Fill in every field. Genres, moods, instruments, location and the story. Spotify's own team says more information helps editors place a song.
3. Write one clear story. What the song is about, who it is for, and one proof point such as a show or a press mention.
4. Pitch to curators as well as editors. Editorial slots are scarce, so independent curators give you more chances. Our playlist pitching guide for independent artists covers how to organize that outreach.
5. Release on a rhythm. Steady releases give you repeated shots at placement rather than a single bet.
6. Measure saves and followers at weeks one, three and six.
7. Keep the relationship. A curator who liked one track is the best first contact for the next.

For a closer look at what happens after the first spike, see our Spotify playlist case studies on sequencing.

## Our perspective We built Playlist Pilot around one observation from cases like these: the artists who benefit most are the ones who treat a placement as the start of a relationship, not a one-off purchase. That is why we do not charge per pitch. Our AI analyzes a track's audio characteristics, genre and mood, matches it with playlists run by real people, and writes a personalized pitch that shows the curator how the song fits. In our experience that makes curators more willing to reply, and our reported average response rate from curators is 47%. We also think authenticity is non-negotiable. A free playlist scanner and bot detection are part of what we offer, because a placement on a playlist full of fake listeners does your catalog no good. We would rather you earn ten real saves than buy ten thousand empty plays. If you take one thing from the case studies above, take this: a good pitch, sent to the right human, repeated release after release, compounds. Zander

Run your own campaign with Playlist Pilot

If you want to put these lessons to work without spending hours searching for curators, Playlist Pilot matches your song to relevant playlists, finds curator contacts and generates a tailored pitch for each one. Plans are published at $19.99 per month for Starter and $29.99 per month for Professional, with Enterprise available on request. You can see the details on our plans page, or read how submitting to Spotify playlists works step by step.

We aim to give you a direct line to curators for your future releases too, so each campaign builds on the last one.

Sources

• Playlists at Work: 24kGoldn, Spotify for Artists
• Campaign Kit: Seven Success Stories, Spotify for Artists
• How Wiki, Dreezy, and Conner Youngblood Made It, Spotify for Artists
• Conner Youngblood on His Success with Spotify's Playlist Submission Tool
• How Do You Get a Hit Song? Spotify Says to Pitch It, Rolling Stone
• Here's how I landed my first Spotify editorial playlist, SoundGuys
• Playlisting, Spotify for Artists
• How the New Playlist Pitch Feature Helps You Find Fans, Spotify for Artists
• Sandbox magazine, Issue 265
• Streaming Services: PR Fraud and Scams, Proton Help Center
• Novecore warns musicians about shady promotion services
• Spotify Playlist Placements: Pay or Go Organic?, Promoly