Spotify has recently been testing the waters with its new personalized editorial playlists, a kind of hybrid between curatorial and strictly algorithmic playlists. Here Chris Robley outlines what artists need to know about this new listening format entering the streaming arena.

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Guest post by Chris Robley of DIY Musician

Spotify has made some big changes that affect where your music appears when you share playlists.

Spotify has been quietly testing around 1,000 personalized editorial playlists. You might also hear them referred to as semi-personal or adaptive playlists too, though those aren’t official terms. Spotify has determined that listeners of these kinds of playlists are more likely to dig the songs, and more likely to save tracks to their own playlists.

What are personalized editorial playlists?

Personalized editorial playlists are a hybrid between curatorial playlists and purely algorithmic playlists such as Release Radar and Discover Weekly, which are customized for each individual Spotify user.

Personalized editorial playlists feature a fixed set of songs chosen by Spotify’s editorial team, but also include a number of adaptive tracks that are determined through algorithmic processes based on individual listener habits.

This means that if your song is added to a personalized editorial playlist, it might not appear in every user’s personalized version. 

That’s all well and good for users, but it does create a concern for artists: “If my song appears on a personalized editorial playlist, how can I be sure my fans will see my track when I share the playlist link?!”

Well, first up, congrats. If you have this problem, it means your music is appearing on personalized editorial playlists.

Second, it’s not a problem! Spotify has solved this issue in an interesting way.

How to share links to personalized editorial playlists.

Within your Spotify for Artists account, you can already see which playlists feature your song. Soon Spotify will be adding a blue “Personalized” badge next to any personalized editorial playlist.

They’ve also introduced unique playlists links that you can share, and when a user clicks one of those unique links, they’ll be taken to a personalized version of the playlist where your track appears at the very top of the list in the #1 position.

These kinds of links can be found in Spotify for Artists for seven days following the date when your song was added to the playlist. When a user clicks that link, your song will appear first for 24 hours, after which the track will revert to its initial position or be removed from that user’s version of the playlist.

Your music will be in the top position of ANY Spotify playlist to which you’ve been added.

This link doesn’t just function this way for personalized playlists. For instance, if you got onto a version of RapCaviar Personalized, you’d then have a link for 7 days that opens RapCaviar where you’re #1.

Pretty cool, huh? My mom always told me I was #1, and now this Spotify link confirms it! ; )

For more information about Spotify’s personalized editorial playlists, go HERE.

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Chris Robley: Editor of CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog. I write Beatlesque indie-pop songs that’ve been praised by No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, & others. My poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, & more. I live in Maine and like peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, a little too much.