How to Pitch Spotify Editors: The Timing, the Tags and the 500 Characters That Decide It

Here's something that happened to me on a Friday not long ago.

A client asked me to pitch her song for her, and the first thing I thought was that I don't do that.

Then I thought about it for a second and changed my mind.

I've seen what Release Radar does for a song, and I've seen artists grow a lot from one editorial playlist.

So if I'm doing the ads, the playlist and the content, and then the pitch gets written in four minutes, everything I did before it goes to waste.

So I pitched for her, and I liked doing it a lot more than I expected to.

FVNERAL and 18 editorial playlists

I've also worked with an Australian band called FVNERAL on a couple of releases, and they tag themselves publicly as "sad songs for cute queers."

Both of those things matter, because after two songs together they started getting added to editorial playlists.

They ended up on 18 editorial playlists, and the biggest one was GLOW, which is a playlist for LGBTQIA+ artists. The second biggest was a Korean playlist called New Song Express, and Fresh Finds AU & NZ was in their top 5 too.

Their pitch is what got them on so many of them, and mostly on the targeted ones.

They're a queer band, so they got added to a queer playlist. They're an Australian band, so they got added to Australian playlists. And they were going on tour in Asia, so they got added to the Asian editorial playlists too.

That's what happens when it's clear who your music is for, and when every detail in the pitch is right.

So I've put everything I know about pitching into one system. First comes the dry stuff, which is everything that happens before you write a single word. Then come the 500 characters, which is the part that decides most of it.

How the pitch works

It all happens inside Spotify for Artists, and nowhere else. Nobody can sell you an editorial placement, so if someone offers you one for money, they're lying to you.

Once your distributor delivers the song, it shows up under Music, then Upcoming, usually within a day or two. That's where the "Pitch a song" button is.

You can only pitch a song that hasn't come out yet. If it's already on Spotify, that door is closed, and your only way back in is a new version of it, like a remix or a version with a feature.

You also get one song per release, so an EP or an album means picking one focus song and spending your one pitch on it.

And you get one active pitch at a time, so if you have two releases scheduled, pitch the one that's further away first and wait for it to come out.

A human being reads it. In some countries it's one or two editors reading every pitch that comes in, so the same person will probably read your next one too.

Never lie to them.

Timing

The hard cutoff is 7 days before release, and after that the button is gone.

But that's the last day it's even possible. Spotify recommends 4 to 5 weeks, and that's what I'd go for every time.

That means the work starts earlier than you think. Send your song to your distributor about 6 weeks before release, so it appears in Spotify for Artists with four full weeks to spare.

Pick a Friday for the release date, because that's when Spotify updates most of its playlists.

Then pitch the day it shows up in your dashboard, because there's nothing to gain from waiting and the editors get busier the closer you get to Friday.

Don't get clever with the tags

Before you get to the writing box, Spotify asks for your location, up to 3 genres, 2 styles, music cultures, moods and instruments.

Those tags decide which editor sees your song. One wrong tag sends it to a person who has no reason to play it.

So be honest about where you're from. If you didn't know, Spotify keeps adding city and region playlists, so go and see what exists near you.

Then pick the specific subgenres you make instead of the big genre above them. If you make future bass, say future bass and not EDM.

Only tag a music culture if it's true, and if one does apply to you, there's usually a lot less competition there than in the main genre.

Moods and instruments take ten seconds. Fill them in, and make sure anything unusual in the song is on the list.

The 500 characters

This is the part that decides most of it. It's the box at the bottom of the form, up to 500 characters, which is about 80 words, and it's the only part of the whole thing you write yourself. Everything else is just picking from menus.

So what would you write if you had 500 characters and one chance to sell your song to a human being?

An editor is asking two things at the same time. They want to know whether your song is good, and whether it will work on their playlist and make Spotify look good.

So your 500 characters have to answer three questions. Why is this song worth pressing play on? Why should I trust you? And what are you doing to bring people to Spotify on release day?

Every block below answers one of those.

Block 1: a hook, and how the song was made (about 150 characters)

Open with something specific that the song itself can't tell them. It could be where you recorded it, a strange detail from the session, a line from the song, or a title nobody would expect.

Then say what the song is about in a few words.

Block 2: the sound and the moment (about 90 characters)

"For fans of X and Y, built for late-night drives."

Name two artists and name the moment someone would put it on. Don't describe what they can hear anyway, because "energetic pop song about a breakup" tells the editor nothing they won't get in the first ten seconds.

Block 3: proof (about 120 characters)

This is where you put your best number and your best name.

That could be the streams on your last single, playlist adds, TikTok views before release, a tour you're supporting, a producer or mixer people know, press, or a sold-out show.

If you have a co-sign from someone respected in your genre, that's worth more than anything else in the box.

FVNERAL had an Asia tour coming up when they pitched. That one line is part of why they got onto Asian editorial playlists.

Block 4: fit (about 50 characters)

Name one or two editorial playlists you'd fit, and listen to them first so you're sure you do.

Aim a bit below the playlist you want most. Big playlists pick artists from smaller ones, so naming Fresh Finds or a small genre playlist works better than naming the biggest playlist in your genre, which reads a bit like asking to headline your first show.

The biggest playlist FVNERAL got on was GLOW, which is for LGBTQIA+ artists. On a playlist like that they were an obvious choice, and on the biggest indie playlist they'd have been one of a thousand.

Block 5: promotion (about 90 characters)

List three or four things you're doing, like a music video, Meta ads, a content series, your mailing list and its size, or a release show.

The editor wants to see that you're pushing it too, so they're not doing all the work for you.

A full example

Let me do it for a song you already know.

This is how I'd pitch Opalite by Taylor Swift, as the focus song of the album, before it came out, because that's the only moment you could pitch it at all.

She'd never fill this in herself, and I don't even think her label pitched it, but let's just play it for fun:

"Recorded at Shellback's studio in Stockholm with Max Martin: an Omnichord, jangly acoustic guitar and a disco bounce under stacked harmonies. It's about forgiving yourself for the relationships that didn't work, going from onyx nights to an opalite sky. For fans of ABBA and Fleetwood Mac, built for a good morning. Would fit Today's Top Hits or a bright pop playlist. Promo: album release, a 90s rom-com video I directed with Rodrigo Prieto shooting on film, and a radio push."

That's 477 characters, and every block is in there.

You get a room and a detail you can picture, who she made it with, what the song is about in one line, two artists and a moment, one playlist, and three promo actions.

There isn't a single number in it. Max Martin and Shellback ARE the proof, which is why those names go in the first line instead of the last.

There's no artist name in there either, because Spotify already has it on the screen. The title only shows up as a lyric, and a lyric is worth the characters.

What I don't like in the pitches I see

• The most common one is leaving the box empty, because it's easy to press Next without ever scrolling to it.
• After that it's picking the tags you wish applied to you instead of the tags that describe your song.
• Then there's the hype words with nothing specific behind them, and editors see those ALL day.
• A lot of people also spend their characters on the song title and the artist name, which Spotify already has on the screen.
• And the worst one is making something up, because a person reads it, and that same person reads your next one.

Pitch every single release, even if you never get picked

If you only take one thing from this article, take this one.

The song you pitch is the song that goes into your followers' Release Radar, so the pitch does something for you whether an editor picks you or not.

Release Radar can bring you more streams than a small editorial playlist would, and those are people who already followed you.

It costs you nothing and it takes one afternoon, so there's no reason to skip it.

What to expect

One add on a big editorial playlist can give you the best month you've had all year, and then the playlist rotates and the number goes back down.

That's why I'd treat an editorial playlist as a bonus on top of the ads, the playlist and the content you're already doing. I wrote more about that in what I wish I knew about Spotify editorial playlists.

And if you'd rather have the whole release run for you, from the ads to the playlist to the content, that's what Release Like a Label is.