Artist playlist not showing up in search

[MarleighFarlow]

I have multiple artist accounts (I work with a management company and manage several artists) I have been instructing my artists to create their own playlists and to make them public for people to find (the whole point is to be stumbled upon by people who are not yet fans of the artist - rather than promoting the artist to people who are already listening). 

I have searched for my artists playlists by the full and correct name only to find "No Search Results", I've tried just keywords and none of my artists playlists come up - the only way to find the playlist is if we share a direct link (again, to those who are already our fans which is moot) or to go to our artist page, scroll to the bottom and find it under playlists (again, silly, the point is to get NEW fans to the artist page for streaming).

So I did a little test with Coldplay (who I do not ever stream or listen to) - I typed in just the word " Chris's" and the TOP result was Coldplay "Chris's Playlist" which a very broad name - underneath that in the top search results drop down were playlists made by individual users with as little as 2 followers on their playlist - interesting. I also tried several other short and ambiguous keywords which directed me to multimillion dollar artists (sure that makes sense, they're super popular) BUT tons of tiny playlists show up as well user playlists rather than Artist Playlists. 

So I'm wondering - are some people(labels/distrib) buying search results? Or is Spotify catering to artists who already have a following and saying forget it to smaller grossing artists (who btw aren't even that small in followers/listeners/streams) who RELY on being found through searches to find new audiences.

Now I have been given the simple shut-down answer of "Search results are calculated by an algorithim which takes into mind your listening history, what people with similar tastes listen to and popularity." But still I find this interesting as my Bluegrass artists certainly do not stream Coldplay (and I mean EVERY one of my accounts bring up Coldplay with Chris's or even just Co). 

This is unsettling because as we all know, Spotify is cornering the market on streams (which is the number one way that people find music now). It's impossible to get on Spotify made playlists (who are also ranking highest with oodles of followers)

Anyway - I sincerely hope I don't get the same answer here as before as it doesn't really seem to make sense espeically based on our listening habits.

Please help! 🙂

[lisanelson]

I am noticing same and it's very frustrating.   If only playlists with lots of followers show up, then how does a new playlist EVER build new followers?      I've cut and past the name of playlist and it still doesn't show up.    In 2017 this sort of search is not that hard and clearly users expect more.    It feels like Spotify wants to dictate what returns in our searches as well as greatly limit search criteria even though I know that metadata such as date uploaded and genre are there and easily searchable.

[qp_hsh1-5hrf]

Same issue and it’s really annoying. I feel like Spotify are purposely blocking smaller artists trying to break. I have managed to add 3 of my 6 different genre playlists. The rest do not show up in the search on the artist page. 

[Ryanx0r]

Well, it's definitely not Spotify "blocking" anything. It's usually kind of like a "Google" story in which it takes time for the system to recognize the playlist and the metadata. The more follower you get, the higher up you'll appear in the search.

So, a good start is to work on your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by not making your title too long, add a description which is short but still reflects what the playlist is about and add between 20 and 60 songs to the playlist. Make sure it's updated regularly and just share it on all socials.

Obviously, you'll want your fans to follow this - so the best place to start is on the media platforms you're most active on (Facebook, Twitter, ...).

Don't be afraid to run Facebook/Google campaign ads to boost the engagement towards your playlist and basically build a strategy around the playlist. So, for instance update it weekly and then tell your fans about it.

After a while, you'll notice more people stumbling across the playlist and you should gain a following - but you'll need to put in the work.

[adriangiordano]

I Experienced the same and I have to say it was frustrating.

Here is the solution:

1. Go to your playlist > Share > Copy Playlist Link

2. In you Artists Profile, Paste the link "Artist Playlist" search field.

3. Magic!