Paying for playlist placements

[SanderKaatee]

Hi everyone,
Hopefully this is the correct category for this question

In the Spotify's terms of service it says:
'Any service that claims to offer guaranteed placement on playlists on Spotify in exchange for money are in violation of our terms & conditions, and they shouldn't be used.'.  
However, services like Submithub are allowed right? Where you pay the playlister to listen to your song and add it if they like it.

Now I have been emailing some playlist curators (by checking the email they have in the description of their playlists) and sometimes it's quite clear that they are going against the regulations. 

However sometimes I get a reply akin to: "We listened to your song and it sounds like a great fit, we normally ask for a donation of $xx,xx would you like to be placed?" 
I'm wondering if this is legit, am I allowed to 'donate' to a playlister when they claim to like my song? Also, are there ways to check whether the playlist has legitimate followers or whether they are only fake accounts?

Yours sincerely,
Sander

[Eni]

Hey there @SanderKaatee, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

We can confirm that this kind of behavior isn't allowed and Spotify doesn't collect money for playlist placement. 

If you'd like to report this, you can reach out directly to our Support team through any of these channels so they can further assist you with this. 

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you. 

[SanderKaatee]

So the donation based playlists are also against the guidelines? Even when they claim that 'they've listened to the song and think its suitable'? 

[ajspraguemusic]

I am also really confused by this. I found a list of playlist curators through DistroKid’s website. When I contacted them, they wanted to place me on a playlist but charged me $35 to be there. Have I done something wrong? I will report and take down my song from the list if this is not allowed. Someone please explain so I don’t do something that breaks rules - I am the first person to respect and follow TOS on any website, but I simply am so confused as a new artist that I can’t determine if I have.

[Alex]

Hi there @ajspraguemusic,

Thanks for reaching out.

Spotify’s User Guidelines (Section 7) prohibit users from accepting or offering to accept any compensation, financial or otherwise, to influence the content included on an account or playlist (to learn more click here). 

If you notice this type of activity and/or have questions about whether a particular playlist offer violates Spotify’s terms, you can report it by contacting our Support team through any of these channels. 

We thank our users for their cooperation.

[Longtogs]

The first Spotify Playlist I contacted responded by email with a “hidden” message (by highlighting it black) asking for $150 to place in the top 20 of their popular playlist. I suspect there is a lot of hidden abuse of the T&Cs.