Learn How Fans Discover Your Music on Spotify with New 'Made to Be Found' Site and 'Source of Streams' Stats

Each year, billions of discoveries are made on Spotify, any time a listener streams an artist for the very first time. That can happen whether artists are on or off cycle, at any stage of their careers. We heard from artists that they wanted to better understand the many paths to discovery on Spotify, so that they can continue building their fanbases.

That’s why we created Made to Be Found, a new website guide for artists to explore how fans find — and fall in love with — music on Spotify. Made to Be Found details how music goes from distribution and playlist pitching, to three key pathways to reaching listeners: editorial curation by Spotify, personalized algorithmic recommendations, and fan-led streaming, like adding songs to personal playlists. Plus, we recommend actions artists can take along that journey to grow and engage their audiences on Spotify.

Each artist’s journey to getting found on Spotify is unique, so alongside the site, we’re also rolling out a new beta feature in Spotify for Artists that provides a detailed view of the source of streams. More on that below.

To get the full experience, check out the site to learn more. Here are some of the highlights:

Tracks to Discovery

Discovery happens on Spotify through three key pathways.

• Made by Editors (Editorial Streams): Editorial curation on Spotify – in playlists like New Music Friday or Lorem – continues to uplift and empower new voices. Over 150,000 artists were playlisted for the first time across 2020 and 2021.

• Made for You (Personalized Streams): We draw upon a multitude of signals to connect the right song to the right ears at the right time in personalized algorithmic recommendations, such as Discover Weekly, Radio & Autoplay, Mixes, or personalized editorial playlists like Songs to Sing in the Shower. 33% of all new artist discoveries on Spotify happen in these personalized sessions — helping to drive future active streams from new fans.

• Made by You (Active Streams): The majority of streams on Spotify come from Made by You sessions. These active streams are generated by listeners seeking out artists and music they love on fan-made or artist playlists, artist profiles, and catalog pages for albums or singles. Listeners showcase their fandom by following an artist, liking a song or album, adding songs to personal playlists they curate, or sharing tracks or lyrics on socials.

Source of Streams

We’re launching an update to the Engagement tab on Spotify for Artists where you can see the “Source of Streams” breakdown for your tracks. You can see the day-by-day breakdown of how each source – whether an active source like Listener’s queue or a programmed source like Personalized editorial playlists – is contributing over the past month across your full catalog. You’ll see these alongside engagement stats like streams per listener, saves, and playlist adds. Learn about each of the sources through our site, then log in to your Spotify for Artists dashboard on desktop to check it out.

Take Control

We’re investing in powerful tools to help artists get found and build fanbases on Spotify. On the site, we outline some ways you can take control of your growth on Spotify — like perfecting your artist profile, pitching to playlist editors, sharing your music through our social integrations, creating Promo Cards, uploading Canvases to your tracks, or creating Marquee campaigns.

To learn even more, check out our educational Game Plan and Song Start series; our Loud & Clear site, which explains how royalties are calculated and paid out; or Fan Study, a resource to learn key fan insights through Spotify data stories. And of course, check out your Spotify for Artists dashboard to put these learnings into practice.