Spotify Monthly Listeners

How to promote a single, step by step

Updated 5 October 2026 · 2 min read

A single release gives you one clear window and a finite amount of pitching time. The artists who get results spend that time on preparation before sending anything.

Four to six weeks before release

Everything here makes the later pitches easier.

  • Submit the track for editorial consideration through Spotify for Artists while it is still unreleased.
  • Prepare a clean version and a radio edit if there is any chance of airplay.
  • Write one short bio paragraph and one line on the story behind the single.
  • Build your contact list by category: curators, press, radio.

One to three weeks before

Send press first, because writers need lead time, then curators. Personalise each one with something specific to the recipient. Keep the pitch short and give a single link.

Our campaign wizard lets you pick the audience by category inside the campaign and send to a managed mailbox, with verification removing invalid addresses before the run.

Release week

Tell your own audience directly on every channel you own. Bring existing listeners to the track early — that is the one first-day signal you actually control.

After release

Measure, follow up once, and record what worked for the next single.

  • Reply to everyone who answers, including declines.
  • Send one polite follow-up to anyone who did not answer after a week.
  • Record listeners and listeners by city four weeks later, with the date.
  • Note which categories produced replies — that is next release’s first list.

The three things that decide the outcome

Fit, timing and follow-through. Fit decides whether anyone listens: a perfectly written pitch to a curator whose playlist does not suit your track still fails. Timing decides whether they can use it: an unreleased track lands in a playlist build, a three-week-old one generally does not. Follow-through decides whether the release compounds, because the relationships you start on this single are what make the next one easier.

Everything else — artwork, video, social content — supports those three. None of it substitutes for approaching the right people at the right moment.

Frequently asked questions

How much time does promoting a single take?

Plan for roughly ten hours spread across the four weeks around release: list building, pitching, and follow-up. Less than that usually means too few contacts were approached.

Should I promote a single before it is out?

Yes. Pitch before release so curators and writers can plan, and use the editorial submission window while the track is unreleased.

What if nobody replies?

Record it, change the pitch angle, and try the next tier of contacts. Silence usually means the pitch was generic or the fit was wrong, not that the music is unpromotable.

Keep reading