As a part of the Industry Takeover series, back in January we invited UD Members and the wider community to an exclusive Plugging & Playlisting Workshop delivered by un:hurd, a specialist marketing partner for artists and managers. The 60 minute session broke down the essential skills, tools and ideas to help you understand the art of plugging and playlisting your music.
UD Low Down: PLUGGING & PLAYLISTING WITH UN:HURD
Both Steph Santos (Project Manager) and James Butler (Head Of Promotions) dropped some vital information during this exclusive workshop. Allowing those attended to really understand the importance of playlisting, not only within a campaign, but as a wider strategy within your music career.
In this session the un:hurd team took us through the different types of streaming platforms, playlists and identified essential tools to build your knowledge with sourcing curators of influential playlists.
We’ve compiled some of the key take aways in this guide to kickstart your plugging and playlisting journey in the right direction!
Understanding playlisting
Editorial playlists
The curated playlists are those streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music curate. Examples of editorial playlists are: New Music Friday, Rap Caviar, Altar, R&B Rising and Fresh Finds.
UGC
User-Generated-Content refers to content created by a platform’s users. This category covers playlists curated by blogs, brands, Indiemono, Spin Grey and even the ones you make yourself. Whether you’re a musician, manager, plugger, or marketer, understanding the full impact of playlisting is essential — the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Positives of Playlisting
- Increases potential audience reach
- Grows streams for a release
- Can help boost algorithmic streams
- Create promotion opportunities
Negatives of Playlisting
- Majority of playlists create passive listeners
- Can schew audience data
- Can negatively impact algorithmic streams
- Impact tends to be short-lived
- Dodgy curators can create issues with streaming services
How do you pitch to UGC playlists?
Un:hurd shared essential tools to sharpen your playlist-pitching game. As your career progresses, understanding the wider plugging industry is crucial — including both free and paid services that can help land your music on editorial and UGC playlists.
Pitching Tools
- Submit Hub
This hub give you the opportunity to get your music reviewed and promoted by 1,700+ quality-checked Spotify playlisters, music bloggers, and influencers. - Groover
This platform connects independent artists with the best curators, radio stations and labels seeking emerging talents. The platform guarantees that music curators and professionals will listen to your track, respond with feedback, and share the tracks they’re vibing with. - Sound Campaign
SC helps artists from all over the globe by getting their music on curator’s playlists, while allowing curators to earn exciting rewards as they explore new music. - Un:hurd music
un:hurd music is a marketing partner for artists and managers at any stage of their career. They give you access to the best in class marketing and promotional tools and expertise, allowing you to find new audiences and grow your fanbase all from one place. - DailyPlaylists
DailyPlaylists is a music promotion and marketing platform for independent artists, music curators and labels. Users can use it to promote their music and improve their marketing campaigns in various ways: they can analyze their songs, submit their music to independent curators on Spotify, connect with other creators and curators through playlist trades and get feedback from the community. Save time and focus on creating and curating music. DailyPlaylists runs on two different submission types and offers a free and a pro tier.
Go Direct
- Artist.tools
A data platform providing comprehensive bot detection, playlist analysis, and curator contact info for artists to build safe and successful careers on Spotify. The tool allows you to research Spotify playlists to see if they’re safe or botted. - Discord
Discord provides an easy way to connect with like-minded people, discuss topics, share content, and organise events or projects. Popular among YouTubers and Twitch Streamers: Many content creators use Discord to engage with their fans and build a sense of community. This creates a great opportunity to connect with curators and become apart of their community. - Chartmetric
Chartmetric is a fully integrated suite of music analytics & intelligence tools. - DSP Search
You can search for playlists on digital service providers (DSPs) like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal by genre on their platforms or in a browser. - Social Media
There are powerful and super passionate curators who run their own platforms. For example, Somewhere Soul is a platform that ‘Digging for the best new music from around the world so that you don’t have to.’ and they pride themselves in creating ‘Music recommendations that put artistry before algorithms’. As an emerging artist, innovators like Somewhere Soul, are really important for elevating great music in an age where there’s an obsession around numbers.
Pitching To UGC Playlists
Un:hurd highlighted how challenging it can be for new and emerging artists to secure spots on editorial playlists. Their advice? Start by building momentum with reputable UGC curators — known in the industry as ‘Feeder Playlists.’ These tastemakers often shape trends and spotlight fresh talent before editorial playlists catch on. Solid research is key to crafting a winning growth strategy.
Do Your Research, questions to ask yourself to save your energy and time…
- Does the playlist include new music?
- Are there artists of a similar size the playlist?
- Are there songs within your genre in the playlist?
- Is it genre-specific or broader?
- Do they accept submissions?
Watch out for bad players
- Guaranteed placement / position for money (known as Payola)
- Promising guaranteed number of streams
- Bottled streams – wave.ai / artister / Repost NG
Pitching To Editorial Playlists
There are two key ways to pitch your song to get on editorial playlists. One is through your label or distributor. The second is through DSP portals like: Spotify For Artists, Deezer For Artists or Amazon Music For Artists.
Un:hurd Editorial Playlist Pitching Notes:
- Pitch 4-5 weeks in advance of your song’s release.
- If you’re releasing an album or EP, choose the best track.
- It’s vital you utlise all the metadata options. From genre tags, to location and instrumentation etc.
- When pitching, first impressions are everything. Cut the fluff — keep it sharp and concise. Highlight what makes you exciting as an artist, share key career milestones, and explain your unique artistic approach.
Active Listeners vs Programmed Listeners
Utilising your analytics can be really helpful in how you understand where you’re currently at, how to sustain and build more moment.
Active Streams
This data will be made up of listeners who actively explore you as an artist. Listening to your music that comes under the following:
- Artist profile
- Album
- Release Page
- Your Playlists
- Your Library
Programmed Streams
Your analytic data that comes under programmed is those listeners that don’t actively go out and seek your music but still discover it on:
- Editorial playlists
- Algorithmic playlists
- Auto play
- UGC
Un:hurd explored how playlists can help create momentum for an artist during different stages of a music campaign.
Pre-release
- Utilising DSP portals like: Spotify For Artists, Deezer For Artists or Amazon Music For Artists. Note: Pitch 4-5 weeks in advance.
Release Week
- Playlist placements, especially UGC, help drive first week streams. Creating awareness for your active listeners and opportunities for artist page follows and people saving it to their libraries.
Post-release
- Continued playlist pitching. Focusing on maintaining momentum and new audiences. If multiple tracks are gaining interest, you should aim to pitch multiple tracks for different playlists.
Where does playlists fit in with your wider marketing strategy?
Campaign Goals
- Increases awareness of the artist, song and project.
- Drive streams.
- Grow your fanbase.
Intregrated Marketing
- Securing playlists strengthens your PR pitches.
- Complements AD campaigns
- Leverage inclusions in social media content.
Audience Development
- Targeted reach with niche playlists
- Discovery of the artist, song and project.
- Creates further data analytics and insights into your fanbase.
Un:hurd Top Tops
The team suggested these key tips to pitching to get your music on playlists and beyond:
- Do your research. What are the key editorial and UGC playlists, spotlighting music like yours?
- Use tools like Artist.tools and social media to identify key curators.
- Network with bloggers and writers before directly pitching your work to build a rapport. Getting in touch in an organic way, like supporting their work, allows you to foster a relationship. When you do have your music ready to share, this creates a connection that feels less transactional.
- Make sure you’re prepared. Make sure you’ve got all your assets ready; you have a basic press release, your biography is up to date and you have high resolution press shots and art work etc.
- Before sending music to playlists or blogs, make sure your social media platforms are on top form. If someone likes your track, they’ll usually go directly to your socials. If it appears you haven’t posted in over a year, while they may like your track, this could work against you in appearing like you don’t have a plan / campaign.
- When communicating with curators or bloggers, share the full project or keep them an exclusive of the next two singles. This not only creates future opportunity for more support with other songs but also communicates that you have a plan in place for your campaign. Allowing curators to feel a part of your journey and become excited about your project as a whole is a great goal.
Follow un:hurd on Instagram and check out their services HERE.
Whether you’re an artist, manager, or part of a team, un:hurd music is your trusted marketing partner—designed to help you take your music to the next level. They give you access to industry-leading tools and expertise, so you can effortlessly reach new listeners, grow your fanbase, and make a real impact with every release.
Words & photography: Laura ‘Hyperfrank‘ Brosnan
