How do I get onto and benefit from algorithmic/editorial surfaces (Release Radar, Discover Weekly, Radio, pre-saves, metadata)?
TL;DR - Pitch early to the humans, engineer early engagement for the robots
Algorithmic vs editorial
Surface: Release Radar
Gatekeeper: algorithm to your followers
Primary trigger: pre-saves and profile follows
Hot window: day 0–1
Surface: Discover Weekly
Gatekeeper: collaborative filtering
Primary trigger: high saves, low skips, playlist adds
Hot window: day 7–21
Surface: Editorial playlists (e.g., New Music Friday, Fresh Finds)
Gatekeeper: human editors plus data
Primary trigger: early, well-written pitch and buzz
Hot window: day-0 refresh and weekly
Surface: Spotify or Apple Radio
Gatekeeper: algorithmic
Primary trigger: engagement velocity and related-artist graph
Hot window: continuous
Prerelease setup (T-30 to T-14 days)
• Upload final master: give editors time and prevent last-minute errors; aim ~-14 LUFS loudness, hook by 0:25
• Metadata hygiene: correct genre, moods, BPM, key, contributors
• Pre-save campaign: guarantees Release Radar reach; target 500+ pre-saves
• Canvas / motion art: reduces skips; add a 6–8 second loop
Editorial pitch (≤500 characters)
• Hook line, story, social proof, marketing plan
• Submit at least 7 days ahead; earlier (T-14 to T-28) earns more eyeballs
Crush the first 48 hours
• Direct track URI links in socials
• KPI: saves per day — benchmark 800+
• IG or TikTok Reel with “Save on Spotify” overlay
• KPI: save-to-stream % — benchmark 10%+
• Discord “save squad” leaderboard
• KPI: streams from “Other” — keep under 20%
• Fan playlist seeding (friends’ lists)
• KPI: playlist-adds per listener — benchmark 3%+
• Pull the track from any playlist delivering <3% saves or >50% skips
Sustain momentum (days 3–21)
• Day 3: collab duet or stitch with feature artist to add new follower-graph edges
• Day 5: “behind the song” YouTube Short to raise watch time and seed Radio
• Day 7: indie-curator push via SubmitHub, Groover, One Submit batch to feed Discover Weekly
• Day 10: meme reposts + IG Story sticker poll to refresh Release Radar via external shares
• Day 14: acoustic or remix drop for second-wave saves and editor re-add chance
Monitor and react — early-warning dashboard
Save-to-stream
• Green: 10% or higher
• Yellow: 6–9%
• Red: under 6%
Skip rate at 30s
• Green: 25% or lower
• Yellow: 26–40%
• Red: over 40%
Streams from “Other”
• Green: under 20%
• Yellow: 20–35%
• Red: over 35%
Playlist follower jumps
• Green: under 5% daily
• Yellow: 5–10%
• Red: over 10% indicates bot risk
Green → scale promo; Yellow → tweak creative; Red → remove placement or revise targeting
Common mistakes and quick fixes
• Pitch sent <7 days before release
• Fix: upload earlier next release; editors need lead time
• Wrong genre or mood tags
• Fix: update metadata and re-pitch; wrong bucket ≈ near-zero chance
• Long intro (hook at 0:45)
• Fix: edit a radio cut with hook by 0:25 and re-upload
• Buying guaranteed streams
• Fix: pull track and demand refund; bots kill discoverability
• One-and-done marketing
• Fix: schedule weekly micro-content for 21 days
Key takeaways
• Early pitch and clean metadata open the editorial door.
• Pre-saves and a front-loaded hook secure Release Radar reach.
• Save rate and skip rate decide Discover Weekly and Radio fate — monitor daily.
• Stack genuine playlist adds and social proof in days 3–14 to keep algorithms firing.
• Remove bad placements fast and document every metric so future releases climb higher.
