Trusted by music industry experts
Andrew Southworth
Jon Anderson
Brian Hazard
Generic playlisting is dead. Say hello to SEO
What are SEO Playlists?
Search engine optimized (SEO) playlists are optimized to rank prominently when a user searches for a relevant artist, genre, theme or mood on Spotify or YouTube.
Unlike generic playlisting, SEO playlist placements generate real streams and engagement by simply tapping into this organic traffic at source.
How SEO playlisting works:
PEOPLE USE THE SEARCH BAR TO DISCOVER MUSIC
People are always searching for playlists that match their current mood, activity, or taste.
Keywords like “Summer Mix 2023” or “Beach Party Hits” are examples of what they might type into the
search bar.
PLAYLISTS THAT APPEAR FIRST GET CLICKED THE MOST
The playlists displayed at the top of search results receive the most clicks and listens.
By pitching your song in a top-ranking playlist, it’s automatically exposed to a large audience, leading
to organic plays from relevant listeners.
KEYWORD SEARCH VOLUME MATTERS
Popular keywords can power a playlist’s success. In fact, even a playlist ranked fourth for a high-search
volume keyword can outperform a top-ranked playlist for a less popular term.
That’s why we consistently research popular keywords to identify trending playlists and themes
receiving high search volume from listeners.
HIGH SEARCH VOLUME + HIGH SEARCH RANKING = Massive audience
Songs in top-ranking playlists with high search volume naturally receive a high number of streams.
By getting your song in these playlists, we make sure more listeners discover your music, boosting your streams and visibility.
TRAFFIC FROM TOP-RANKING PLAYLISTS IS COMPLETELY ORGANIC
SEO playlisting is 100% organic, because your listeners found your music on their own, through their
own impromptu searches.
That means the source of every single stream from your SEO playlisting campaign is completely
transparent, with no nasty surprises.
WE PITCH YOUR SONG TO TOP- RANKING PLAYLISTS
At Moonstrive, we specialize in placing your songs with influential, top-ranking SEO playlists.
We pitch your song to the right curators, maximizing the chances of your song reaching the audience it deserves.
Being in a top-ranking SEO playlist not only exposes your music to a large audience but also ensures that these listens are 100% organic and high-quality.
With our expertise, we make this process even easier, leaving you free to focus on what you do best—making great music!
For more information on SEO playlisting, please visit our support page.
Why SEO playlists are the best playlists: Comparing different playlist types for music promotion
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SEO Playlists (user curated and editorial)
Advertised Playlists
Botted Playlists
Source of traffic
🟢 Organic
SEO playlists appear first in search results, naturally attracting listeners searching for specific types of music.
🟢 Organic
Advertised playlists typically appear on the user's social media to entice users to listen to the playlist.
🔴 Fake
Botted playlists generate artificial engagement created by automated systems, not real listeners, to inflate play counts and manipulate music streaming metrics.
Amount of traffic
🟢 High
SEO playlists with high search volume attract a lot of traffic because many people search for those specific keywords or topics. This leads them directly to these playlists. The higher the search volume, the more people find and listen to the music featured in these playlists. People intend to listen to the music in these SEO playlists when they find them.
🟡 Low
Advertised playlists attract users who may not be actively looking to listen to a playlist. For example when they are scrolling through their social media feed. SEO playlists, on the other hand, are intended for users who are actively searching and intending to listen to music.
🟢 Low to extremly high
The traffic from botted playlists can vary because the person using bots controls how many plays to generate, and it's cheap to do so. Although platforms try to detect fake activity, some botted playlists can still exist and gather plays for a while before being caught.
Cost of traffic
🟢 From free to high
The cost of being featured on SEO playlists varies. It depends on whether artists can contact playlist curators directly or need to go through agencies. Artists with personal connections to curators can pitch their music for free or at a lower cost. However, many artists do not have these connections and therefore hire agencies. These agencies have established networks of curators and charge for their services to pitch the artists' music to the curators.
🟡 Very high
The advertiser has to spend a lot of money to get a decent amount of traffic on the playlist due to typically low conversion rates from the playlist ad to the playlist. Targeting people in North America and Europe is especially expensive.
🟢 Low to high
Botting playlists can be cheap, allowing high play counts at low cost. However, some promotion services may sell botted traffic and still charge high fees,
Steadiness of traffic
🟢 Consistent
SEO playlists receive consistent traffic when their titles are frequently searched and they remain at the top of search results, ensuring a consistently high level of traffic over time.
🟡 Traffic stops once ad stops
Advertised playlists rely on paid ads for traffic, which stops when the ads do, as they mostly attract new users. With a small listener base, traffic halts once the ads end.
🔴 Traffic stops immediately
Once the botted traffic stops, there is no retention at all to be expected as these are not real listeners.
Demographics of traffic
🟡 Wordwide
People worldwide can discover SEO playlists. These playlists often target and attract traffic from specific regions or language groups by using specific keywords that reflect local search habits.
🟢 Targeted
Advertised playlists are great for reaching specific groups of listeners because they can use targeted ads to connect with particular demographics.
🔴 Typically from one city
Traffic from fake (botted) playlists often comes from one place. But better bots can make it look like listeners are from many different cities.
Quality of traffic
🟢 High
When people find an SEO playlist using the search bar, they want to listen to the music it contains. This means that the listeners are genuinely interested in the music.
🟡 Moderate
Advertised playlists often grab listeners' attention briefly before they move on to other activities on social media. The advertised song(s) usually receive the most traffic, with other songs receiving less.
🔴 No quality
No quality at all. Instead of humans, your song would be played by electronic devices only.
Additional traffic
🟢 Likely
SEO playlists can increase visibility and attract genuine listeners who may add your tracks to their playlists, spreading your music organically and boosting potential traffic.
🟡 Moderate
Advertised playlists may attract passive listeners, but they often fail to generate excitement or engagement beyond the playlist itself. Typically, people briefly sample the music after seeing an ad and then move on to other online activities.
🔴 No additional traffic
Bots don't interact with songs in playlists genuinely. While some may simulate saves or followers, these aren't real accounts, and platforms like Spotify often delete such fake accounts in updates, removing any non-authentic activity.
Royalty revenues
🟢 Eligible
SEO playlists connect with real users, ensuring the traffic they generate is monetizable on platforms thanks to authentic engagement.
🟢 Eligible
Advertised playlists connect with real users, ensuring the traffic they generate is monetizable on platforms thanks to authentic engagement.
🔴 Ineligible
Platforms like Spotify and YouTube don't pay for bot-generated streams or views, using advanced systems to filter out fake activity and ensure only real engagement earns royalties.