How to Make Money on Spotify
| Key Takeaways |
|
Let’s talk about making money on Spotify, because there’s a lot more to it than just streaming royalties paid to artists. You can earn money through streaming payouts, sure. But independent artists can also earn money by linking their merch store to their profile.
Some fans really do click through and buy. I’ve seen independent artists get t-shirt sales from running ads to their Spotify page. And if you’re savvy, you can even build playlists and get paid to review music on platforms like SubmitHub and Groover. That’s actual income from Spotify beyond just your own streams.
You could have the best song in your genre sitting on the platform right now, and if the algorithm doesn’t pick it up, it’s basically invisible. Financial success on Spotify is a function of volume, and volume is a function of getting Spotify’s algorithm to notice you exist.
Artists who earn money on this streaming service understand this is a two-part game. First, you build your initial audience: the listeners who stream, save, and engage with your music enough to send popularity signals to Spotify. Then, once you hit certain thresholds, the algorithm takes over and does the heavy lifting.
That’s when you go from hundreds of streams to thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions.
Building that initial audience and triggering the algorithm requires strategic promotion. Music ad campaigns have to be set up very carefully to do exactly what you want them to do. It usually takes a significant learning curve and gets technically complicated fast.
That’s where tools like Hypeddit come in. The platform automates the entire setup process: tracking your popularity score, building campaigns that attract new listeners, and handling all the technical details so you don’t have to spend weeks figuring out Facebook Ads Manager on your own.
Upload Your Music Through a Distributor
First things first: the Spotify platform doesn’t let you upload music directly to your Spotify account. You need a distributor to act as the middleman between you and the platform.
DistroKid, TuneCore, and CD Baby are the big names here. These distribution services send your music to Spotify and other streaming services, then manage payments to make sure you actually get paid when people listen. The business model typically works one of two ways: either you pay an annual fee and keep 100% of your artist royalties, or you pay nothing upfront but the distributor takes around 20% off the top.
Your choice of distributor can actually impact your algorithmic reach.
Spotify has this feature called Discovery Mode. Basically, you agree to give up 30% of your royalties, and in exchange, Spotify pushes your track harder through Spotify Radio, Discover Weekly, and other algorithmic placements. It’s like paying for extra visibility, except you’re paying with future royalties instead of cash upfront.
Some distributors that already take a cut of your royalties don’t support Discovery Mode. If Spotify takes 30% off the top, all the revenue those distributors get to share shrinks too, and they’re not having that.
So if you want access to Discovery Mode (and you probably should, especially when you’re trying to build momentum), consider choosing a distributor that gives you 100% of your royalties and supports all of Spotify’s promotional features. Not all distributors qualify for or support Discovery Mode, which is why some artists switch distributors mid-career: they realize they’re missing out on algorithmic opportunities.
Understand How Spotify Royalties Work
Spotify pays artists per stream, but there’s no magic number. You’ll hear people throw around $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, which means 1,000 streams nets you somewhere between $3 and $5. Not exactly a lot of money.
Why does the payout vary so much? All the revenue Spotify collects (from subscribers paying monthly fees and from advertisers buying ad space for ad revenue) goes into one giant pot. Spotify takes their cut first (gotta keep the lights on), and then the rest gets divided up based on the total number of streams across the entire platform.
Artists receive payments differently depending on where the stream came from. Premium subscribers generate higher payouts than free users on the free tier. Streams from the US pay more than streams from India, where a Spotify subscription costs way less because of different economies and country-specific pricing. It’s all relative to what Spotify collected in the first place.
There are two types of royalties you need to know about: recording royalties (paid to whoever owns the recording, which is you if you’re independent and not signed to a record label) and mechanical royalties—also called publishing royalties—paid through organizations like the Mechanical Licensing Collective (paid to songwriters and publishers who own the composition rights). If you write and record your own music, you qualify for both. If you’re covering someone else’s song, you only get the recording royalty while songwriters receive the publishing portion.
You need a lot of streams to see real income. Which brings us back to the main challenge: growing your audience and triggering algorithmic support.
Grow Your Audience with Smart Links and Build Your Initial Fanbase
Making money on Spotify is a long game, not a sprint.
Most people who’ve run ads for products expect to spend a dollar and get two dollars back immediately. That’s how e-commerce advertising works. You sell a $50 product, you make instant profit. But Spotify royalty rates don’t support those economics. You’re not selling a product. You’re building an audience to monetize over time.
The real money comes from finding diehard fans who stream your music 10 times, 50 times, 100 times over the next few months. Building this circle of dedicated listeners is where you make your ad spend back and then some, through repeated listens and long-term fan support.
Success on Spotify builds in two stages:
Part 1: Your Initial Audience
You need to bring new listeners to your music first. These are the people who give Spotify the popularity signals it needs. Spotify doesn’t sit there analyzing whether your song is “good” or “bad.” Spotify only cares about popular versus non-popular. If your tracks show signs of popularity (streams, saves, repeat streams, playlist adds), Spotify takes notice and starts testing it in front of more people.
Building that initial popularity is your responsibility. Spotify isn’t going to do it for you just because your song sounds good.
Part 2: The Algorithm Takes Over
Once you hit certain thresholds (we’ll get to the specific numbers in a bit), the algorithm kicks in and does the heavy lifting. Your music starts appearing in Discover Weekly. It gets pushed through Spotify Radio. Suddenly you’re getting organic streams from people who’ve never heard of you.
You can’t get to Part 2 without doing Part 1.
Enter Smart Links
This is where smart links become essential. A smart link is one URL that works for everyone, whether your fans use Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube Music, or anything else. You drop that link in your Instagram bio, in your emails, in your ads, and fans click once to get to your music on their platform of choice.
You’re trying to funnel traffic from everywhere (social media, email, ads) into Spotify. Smart links make that friction-free. Hypeddit’s smart links work as pixel-tracked landing pages, so you can watch exactly which promotional efforts are driving the most listeners and where they’re coming from.
You’re not just sharing content. You’re channeling traffic strategically to build those popularity signals Spotify needs to see.
Boost Streams with Playlists
Playlists can be huge for discovery. There are three types you should know about:
Algorithmic Playlists (Discover Weekly, Release Radar, Spotify Radio)
These are generated by Spotify’s algorithm based on listening behavior. You don’t pitch to these. You trigger them through engagement.
Editorial Playlists (curated by Spotify’s team)
These are the big official playlists. You can submit your unreleased music through Spotify for Artists before your release date. The recommendation is to submit 7 days or more before the release. But you can technically do it anytime before the actual release date. Spotify’s editorial team and playlist curators review submissions and adds songs that fit. No guarantees, but it’s worth the shot.
User-Generated Playlists (created by fans and playlist curators)
These range from bedroom curators with 50 followers or more to indie tastemakers with 50,000. They’re more accessible than editorial playlists, but quality can vary wildly. Many independent artists create their own playlists as well to feature their music alongside similar artists.
Now let’s talk about what actually triggers the algorithm to pick you up.
The Popularity Score
Spotify has an internal metric called the popularity score. It runs from 0 to 100, and it’s based on recent interaction and engagement with your music. When your popularity score hits 20-30, you typically start appearing in Discover Weekly.
You usually need around 10,000 streams from active, engaged listeners in the first 28 days to hit that threshold.
The popularity score is calculated on a 28-day moving time window—essentially a rolling month of activity. This is important to understand. 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 that same effort and condense it into 30 days with enough intensity, you might actually have a shot.
Release Radar Reality Check
Release Radar helps you reach existing fans when you drop new music. The more engaged listeners you have, the better your Release Radar performance. It’s not guaranteed to everyone who’s ever listened to you.
Release Radar has a maximum of 30 songs. Spotify selects which songs to include based on which artists a user has actually engaged with, not just passively followed. If someone follows you but never actually listens, you might not show up in their Release Radar at all. Plus, not everyone listens to their Release Radar every week. Some fans don’t check it at all.
The Money Angle: Becoming a Playlist Curator
You can become a playlist curator yourself. Build your own playlists, grow them to a decent size, and list them on SubmitHub or Groover. Other artists and creators will pay you to review their tracks for placement consideration. Suddenly Spotify becomes a revenue stream beyond just your own music.
Here’s how the economics work: most playlist curators need to reach around 1,000 followers before platforms like SubmitHub will accept them. That usually requires an initial investment in running ads to grow the playlist. Hypeddit has an ad template specifically for this.
Once you hit that threshold, this becomes active income. You have to invest time reviewing music and maintaining your playlist. But you can earn good money fast. A lot of independent artists actually use this to make $5-10 per day, then use that money to run targeted ads for their own music. So they essentially pay for their music promotion with their own playlists, and include their own music on that playlist as well. Works brilliantly. But note it’s active work that requires time investment.
Spotify royalties, by contrast, are passive and long-term income – the complete opposite approach.
Also, don’t sleep on linking your merch store to your Spotify profile. When you’re running ads to your music, some listeners will end up clicking through and buying a t-shirt or vinyl. It happens more than you’d think. Many artists also use Spotify to promote tour dates and grow their live show revenue streams.
Promote Your Music with Ads
Organic growth takes time. Like, a lot of time. And honestly? It might never happen.
Music ad campaigns let you build that initial audience way faster by putting your music in front of thousands of people who actually match your genre and vibe.
Why Facebook and Instagram Ads Work Best
Facebook and Instagram are the go-to platforms for music promotion. Not Spotify’s own ad platform. Not YouTube. Not TikTok paid ads.
- YouTube is too sticky. People stay on the platform. They watch your music video, maybe subscribe, but they rarely click through to Spotify
- TikTok has high minimum budgets and the same stickiness problem (TikTok organic content can work great for finding trends, but paid ads? Not ideal for music promotion)
- Spotify Ad Studio? Terrible idea for promoting your own music. Those audio ads don’t build the kind of engagement you need
Facebook and Instagram work because people scroll, click, and move to other platforms easily. You can attract diehard fans of your particular genre and style of music without needing to explain complex targeting strategies.
Organic vs. Paid: Speed and Certainty
The difference between organic social media and paid ads isn’t about “owned” versus “borrowed” audiences. Both can build real listeners. Both give you legitimate fans.
The actual difference is speed and certainty.
With organic posting, you invest tons of time creating content and hope the algorithm decides to share it with people. Maybe it pops. Maybe it doesn’t. You could spend months posting daily and get basically nowhere.
With paid ads, your content gets seen by thousands of targeted listeners overnight. It’s predictable. It’s scalable. You control the reach.
Why Hypeddit Exists
Music ad campaigns have to be set up very carefully to do exactly what you want them to do. The targeting needs to be right. The creative needs to convert. The campaign structure needs to optimize for the right objective.
This usually takes a significant learning curve. It gets technically complicated fast. Most artists try to run ads themselves, get overwhelmed by Facebook Ads Manager, waste some money on poorly structured campaigns, and give up.
That’s exactly why Hypeddit puts the entire process on autopilot. You give the platform your song, your artwork, and your budget (minimum $5/day to start). Hypeddit builds the campaign, handles the technical setup, attracts the right listeners, and tracks everything for you.
Hypeddit shows your popularity score right inside the platform alongside your campaign results. You can watch in real-time as your campaign moves that score closer to the 20-30 threshold where Discover Weekly kicks in.
Start with $5/day. Test it without fear. If it works, scale up.
Turn Fans into Long-Term Supporters
Email addresses are king. Your listeners on Spotify are owned by Spotify, not by you. Same for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or any other platform. The only fans you truly own are the ones whose email addresses you have connected to your bank account of contacts.
Think of email as insurance. If Spotify deleted your account tomorrow (unlikely, but stranger things have happened), you could instantly reach everyone on your email list and tell them where to find you next. That’s power.
Building an email list also gives you a direct way to promote future releases and drive streams right when they drop. This helps boost your popularity score and can even help you monetize through merch sales directly to your most engaged fans.
How to Capture Emails
Standard music ad campaigns that promote already-released songs don’t automatically capture email addresses. That’s a separate feature you need to set up intentionally.
The best time to capture emails is before your release through pre-save campaigns.
You set up a pre-save campaign for your upcoming release. Hypeddit can do this. Fans authorize Spotify or Apple Music to save your song to their library on release day. In exchange for that authorization, you capture their email address. When the song drops, it automatically saves to their library and shows up in their Release Radar.
This is huge because it gives you day-one momentum. You’re hitting Release Radar playlists right away, which helps trigger algorithmic pickup faster. Plus, you now have an email list you can join and use for every future release.
Having fan email addresses provides an opportunity to reach those fans directly and drive listeners and streams to new songs right when they drop. It’s your backup plan and your growth engine rolled into one.
The Long Game Pays Off
Strong fan relationships lead to more consistent streams and revenue. This is the money game on Spotify: finding diehard fans who come back and stream your music 10 times, 50 times, 100 times over the next few months. That’s where you make your ad spend back and then some.
It’s not about going viral once. It’s about building a foundation that grows with every release.
Analyze Your Performance and Improve
Spotify for Artists is a brilliant tool. It shows you exactly who’s listening to your music, where they’re located, how they found you, and what they do after they hit play on your tracks.
Check your stats regularly. Not obsessively (that’s a fast track to burnout), but consistently enough to spot patterns and clear trends.
What to Track
Focus on these metrics:
- Monthly listeners: The #1 status symbol for independent artists
- Engagement signals: Saves, playlist adds, and streams/listener rates tell you if people actually connect with your music
Don’t obsess over stream counts alone. Streams can come from passive playlist listeners who never engage. You want active, engaged fans.
Getting Better Over Time
Your first campaign might take longer to crack the algorithm. But your fifth campaign? It might hit Discover Weekly way faster.
You’re building on what you’ve already created. Each campaign adds to your listener base. Each release trains the algorithm on who your fans are. The foundation you build with one release makes the next release stronger.
Real results vary based on song quality, genre, and strategy, but the process gets easier over time as you learn what works for your specific sound and audience.
If a particular song is getting traction (driving growth, getting picked up by playlists, showing up in Discover Weekly), figure out why. Was it the production? The hook? The way you structured the campaign? Apply those insights when you’re planning your next release.
Artists who actually earn money on Spotify aren’t guessing. They’re watching the data, testing strategies, and adjusting based on what the numbers tell them. The analytics provide clear answers about what’s working and what isn’t.
Conclusion
Making money on Spotify comes down to understanding the two-part system: build your initial audience through strategic promotion, then let Spotify’s algorithm scale your reach to hundreds of thousands or millions of streams.
Get your music on the platform through the right distributor. Run targeted music ad campaigns to build that initial listener base. Capture email addresses through pre-saves so you own your connection to fans. Monitor your popularity score and engagement metrics so you know what’s working. Keep showing up with new releases that build on what you’ve already created.
The royalty rates require a long-term mindset. This is about finding diehard fans who stream your music repeatedly over months and years. That’s where the economics actually work.
Don’t wait for Spotify royalties alone. The payback period is too long. Instead, get familiar with ads through Hypeddit. Grow themed playlists in your genre (like “Summer House 2026”). Use ads to grow them to 1,000+ followers. Monetize them on SubmitHub. Take that money to promote more music. This builds a self-accelerating promotion machine. And because you include your best songs on those playlists, your music grows with them. It works.
Remember: ads build and compound. Playlist placements spike and fade. One gives you a foundation that grows stronger with every release. The other gives you a temporary boost that disappears the moment you’re removed.
Consistency, the right tools, and genuine audience connection turn streams into sustainable income over time. Artists making real money on Spotify figured this out. Now you know how to do the same.