How to Get More Monthly Listeners on Spotify
Your Spotify monthly listeners count is one of the most prestigious metrics on the platform. When someone visits your artist profile, that number sits right at the top. It’s the first thing fans see, and for many artists, monthly listeners have become the #1 status symbol in music.
But getting more monthly listeners isn’t just about sending traffic to Spotify. It’s about understanding how Spotify’s algorithm works, and more importantly, building monthly listeners who come back month after month instead of disappearing after one listen.
Key Takeaways:
- Focus on promotion methods that bring listeners who actually know your name (like targeted ads) instead of listeners who don’t know who you are (like playlist placements)—listeners who know your name save your music and trigger Spotify’s algorithm through Release Radar and Discover Weekly
- Release singles every four weeks instead of albums to maximize Release Radar exposure throughout the year, giving you 12 months of algorithmic momentum instead of just one month
- Run consistent Facebook and Instagram ads at $5-10 per day to build a foundation of followers that compounds over time, with each new release performing better than the last as your audience grows
- Create your own playlists featuring all your music and promote them to convert one-time listeners into recurring fans who stream your songs month after month without additional ad spend
Why Monthly Listeners Matter More Than You Think
Unlike followers or total streams, monthly listeners show how many unique listeners actually listened to your music in the last 28 days. These are active listeners who chose to play your songs, making this metric a real-time snapshot of your reach and audience engagement.
When you hit 10,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, you’re not just reaching a number. You’re building credibility. Other artists notice. Playlist curators take you more seriously. And most importantly, Spotify’s algorithm starts paying attention to your music.
But quality music alone won’t get you there. You need a strategy that combines consistent releases with smart promotion to grow your Spotify listeners.
The Two Paths to Growing Monthly Listeners
When you think about growing your audience on Spotify, there are really two approaches: short-term strategies and long-term compounding growth.
Short-Term Strategies: Getting New Listeners Fast
The fastest way to get more monthly listeners is simple: send traffic to Spotify. You can do this through Spotify playlists, music ads, or even paid features on music blogs.
Playlist promotion can work because you’re tapping into an existing audience. When a playlist adds your track, their followers hear your music and become new listeners. The challenge is you often can’t control when you get added, and there’s no guarantee a playlist will accept your song.
You might wonder: if playlists have these limitations, why is everyone talking about them? Simple. Playlist promotion is the easiest and most effortless way to promote music on Spotify. You just need your song link and a credit card. But just because something is easy doesn’t mean it provides lasting value.
Music ads are the most reliable short-term strategy because you control the on switch. You can start running Facebook or Instagram ads today and drive listeners to Spotify immediately. You set the budget, choose your targeting, and track exactly what you’re spending per listener.
But the problem with only thinking short-term is that those new listeners often disappear next month.
Long-Term Strategy: Building Monthly Listeners Who Compound
In an ideal world, you don’t want to be responsible for all your monthly listeners. That’s exhausting and expensive.
The real goal is to trigger Spotify’s algorithm so the platform sends you free listeners through Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and Spotify Radio. When you hit that sweet spot, Spotify essentially becomes your promotion partner, working for you 24/7.
Release Radar gives you a chance to reach your followers when you drop new releases, while Discover Weekly introduces your music to new listeners who enjoy similar artists. But triggering these algorithmic playlists requires a specific foundation. You need engaged listeners who actually save your music to their libraries and add it to their own playlists.
Why Some Listeners Disappear and Others Stay
Most artists run a campaign, gain 500 listeners this month, and then watch those listeners vanish next month. They’re back to square one, needing to replace everyone who left.
This happens because not all Spotify listeners are created equal.
With playlist promotion, you’re getting listeners who don’t know who you are. They heard your song in a playlist, but they don’t know your name. They don’t save your music. They don’t follow you. Next month, they’re gone.
With ads and targeted promotion, you’re getting listeners who actually know your name because they came to check out your music specifically. They’re more likely to save your songs and follow you on Spotify. And here’s the key: when they save your music, Spotify adds those tracks to their personal libraries and playlists. That means they’re more likely to come back next month.
When you stack listeners who know your name month after month, your monthly listener count compounds. You’re not replacing last month’s audience. You’re adding to it.
How Spotify’s Algorithm Actually Works
Let me show you what this looks like in practice. When you look at where your Spotify streams come from in Spotify for Artists, you’ll see a breakdown of traffic sources.
For a song that’s performing well, about 39% of streams typically come from Spotify’s algorithm. That’s Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and Spotify Radio. You didn’t pay for those Spotify streams. Spotify sent them to you for free.
Another 39% comes from listeners’ own playlists and libraries. These are people who saved your song and keep coming back to stream it. Again, free traffic and additional monthly listeners.
That’s 78% of your streams happening without you lifting a finger. But, you have to trigger the algorithm first.
The algorithm pays attention when your song hits a popularity score between 20 and 30. That score is based on how many Spotify streams and saves you’re getting. To reach that threshold, you need an initial push of listeners who actually save your music.
The popularity score is calculated on a 28-day moving window. This means your promotional activities are most effective when focused within that timeframe. It’s not just about being consistent—it’s about being consistent with enough intensity to actually move the needle above that 20-30 threshold.
If you promote a little bit consistently for 90 days but never push the popularity score above 20, you won’t crack the algorithm. But if you take the same effort and condense it into 30 days with enough intensity, you have a real chance.
This is why your promotion strategy matters. If you use methods that generate listeners who don’t know who you are and won’t save your music, you never trigger the algorithm. But if you bring in listeners who know your name and engage with your music, Spotify notices and amplifies your reach.
Optimize Your Artist Profile to Convert Visitors
Before you start driving traffic to Spotify, make sure your artist profile is set up to convert visitors into followers. When someone discovers your music through the Spotify app, your profile is often the first impression they get.
Add a professional profile photo that represents your brand. Write a bio that tells people who you are and what your music sounds like. Include links to your social media so fans can connect with you beyond Spotify. If you have tour dates or upcoming releases, showcase those prominently.
While optimizing your artist profile won’t directly increase your monthly listeners, it does improve the conversion rate of the traffic you’re already sending. Think of it like this: driving listeners to a blank profile is like inviting someone to an empty house. A complete profile helps turn curious listeners into dedicated fans who save your music and become social media followers.
Your artist profile should make it easy for someone to understand your sound, find all your music in one place, and know how to stay connected with you. This simple step ensures that every new listener you bring in has the best chance of becoming a long-term fan.
Release Strategy: Singles vs. Albums
One of the biggest questions artists ask is whether they should release an album or drip out singles. If your goal is to maximize monthly listeners, singles win every time.
Here’s why: Spotify sends your new music to fans through Release Radar every time you put out a new release. It doesn’t matter if that release has one song or twelve songs. Either way, you get one month of Release Radar exposure.
If you release a 12-track album, you get Release Radar for four weeks. Then nothing for the next 11 months while you work on more music.
But if you take those same 12 songs and release them as singles once a month, you get Release Radar for the entire year. That’s potentially thousands of additional monthly listeners spread across 12 months instead of just one.
You don’t need to wait until you have a full album ready. A single track is a complete release. Focus on a consistent release schedule: one new track every four weeks keeps you in the algorithm’s rotation all year long and continuously brings new listeners to your artist profile.
Build Your Own Playlists With Your Music
Here’s a strategy artists overlook: create your own playlists and put all your music in them. Then promote those playlists to grow your audience.
When someone follows your playlist, they’re subscribing to your music. Every time you release a new song and add it to that playlist, they’ll see it in their queue. That’s recurring exposure without paying for ads every time, and it generates more streams month after month.
Over time, as your own playlists gain followers, you’re building a foundation of listeners who come back consistently. It might start with 50 followers, then 100, then 500. Each new follower raises your baseline of guaranteed monthly listeners.
This strategy works particularly well alongside ads. When you run a campaign, direct people to follow your playlist instead of just listening once. You’re converting one-time clicks into long-term audience relationships. Think of it like being your own playlist curator, building something you control rather than hoping other playlist curators discover you.
Running Ads for Audience Growth
If you’re serious about growing monthly listeners, music ads on social media platforms are your most reliable tool. But not all ads are created equal, and not all platforms work the same way.
The biggest mistake artists make is running social media ads without understanding what happens after someone clicks. If you send someone to Spotify and they just listen once, you’ve rented their attention for three minutes. But if they follow you or save your song, you’ve built an asset that compounds over time.
This is why smart links matter for tracking where your traffic goes and what actions people take. When you run an ad on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, you want to capture that click and turn it into a follower or playlist add. That way, every dollar you spend builds something permanent and drives real audience growth.
You can also use features like download gates to capture email addresses, but that requires separate setup beyond standard ad campaigns. For most artists, the focus should be on building your Spotify listener base first.
The challenge is that music ad campaigns must be set up very carefully to do exactly what you want them to do. This usually takes a significant learning curve and is technically complicated. You need to understand audience targeting, creative optimization, campaign structure, and how to track the right metrics. Most artists give up before they figure it out.
This is exactly why tools like Hypeddit put the entire process on autopilot. Instead of spending weeks learning Meta’s ad platform, you can set up a campaign in minutes using templates designed specifically for growing Spotify listeners. The platform handles the technical complexity while you focus on your music.
Start small. You don’t need a massive budget to see results. Running ads at $5 per day for two weeks can generate 50-200 new followers if you’re targeting the right audience. Those followers feed into Release Radar for your next release, which triggers more algorithmic exposure, which brings in more organic listeners.
The most important thing is consistency. Artists who run ads for three months straight see compounding audience growth. Each new release performs better than the last because the foundation keeps growing.
Track Your Audience Data in Spotify for Artists
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Spotify for Artists shows you exactly where your listeners are coming from and provides essential audience data to guide your marketing efforts.
Check this regularly. Are most of your streams coming from Spotify’s algorithm, or are you still driving all the traffic yourself? Are listeners saving your music to their libraries, or are they only hearing it once? This listener engagement data tells you whether your strategy is working.
If you’re not seeing algorithmic pickup after a few releases, that’s a signal. You might need to adjust your promotion strategy to focus on more engaged listeners. If your saves-to-streams ratio is low, your audience isn’t connecting deeply enough with your music.
This is also why tools like Hypeddit show the popularity score inside the platform alongside your campaign results. You can monitor in real-time how your campaign moves the popularity score—not just vanity metrics like streams, but the actual number that triggers algorithmic playlists.
Use this audience data to guide your next move. Double down on what’s working. Cut what’s not. The insights from Spotify for Artists should directly inform how you spend your time and budget on marketing efforts.
Spotify Discovery Mode: When You Qualify
Once you reach certain thresholds on Spotify in terms of listeners and streams, you may qualify for Spotify Discovery Mode. This is a program where Spotify gives you more algorithmic exposure in exchange for you accepting a lower royalty rate on those algorithmically-delivered streams.
It’s not available when you’re just starting out, but it’s worth knowing about. When you do qualify, Discovery Mode can help you reach significantly more listeners without spending additional money on ads. Just know that you’re essentially trading some royalty income for increased exposure.
What Not to Do
Let’s talk about what doesn’t work, because there’s a lot of bad advice in the music industry out there.
Spotify Ad Studio sounds promising, but it’s not effective enough to recommend. Technically, yes, you can spend money there and get some listeners. But the ROI isn’t strong compared to running ads on other social media platforms.
Buying fake streams or bot traffic will destroy your Spotify account. Spotify detects this, and it tanks your algorithmic potential. Plus, fake listeners don’t save your music or come back next month, so you’re paying for numbers that mean nothing.
Don’t expect to get on editorial playlists or official Spotify playlists through shortcuts. While Spotify’s editorial team does curate playlists, there’s no way to guarantee placement, and paying for fake playlist placements can actually hurt your account.
And finally, don’t expect Spotify profile optimization alone to move the needle. Yes, you should have a professional artist profile with a good profile picture, a filled-out bio, and social links. But a complete Spotify profile doesn’t bring listeners to the platform. It just helps convert the traffic you’re already sending there.
Putting It All Together for Long Term Success
Growing monthly listeners on Spotify isn’t about one magic trick. It’s about combining consistent release strategies with smart promotion that builds engaged audiences around your artist’s music.
Release new music every four weeks to maximize Release Radar exposure. Use ads or other promotion methods to bring in engaged listeners who will save your music. Build your own playlists with your tracks to capture recurring listeners. And track your audience data in Spotify for Artists so you can see what’s working and adjust accordingly.
When you focus on building listeners who compound instead of chasing temporary spikes, you create momentum that carries forward. Your monthly listener count becomes a reflection of real audience growth, not just rented attention. This approach leads to long term success rather than short-lived wins.
And that’s when you stop feeling like you’re fighting for every listener and start feeling like Spotify is working with you to grow your reach.
Get started with Hypeddit to run smarter campaigns that build your audience month after month.