Starting a music career is incredibly daunting because there are so many barriers in the way. You’re competing with so many other people that want to make it in the industry and the reality is, only a select few will get recording contracts and move their career forward.

The thing is, the record companies don’t hold all of the power anymore because the way that we listen to music has changed. Streaming platforms like Spotify make it easier than ever for new artists to be heard and take their career to the next level. But a lot of new musicians assume that you need to be signed to get on Spotify, and some people avoid it because they’ve been told that it’s not worth it because you hardly get paid anything. The thing is, even if it doesn’t make you a millionaire, Spotify is still a very valuable platform for new musicians. Here are some of the big reasons why.

You Can Tap Into A Huge Audience

Spotify has 124 million subscribers around the world. That’s 124 million people that could possibly hear your music, which is a huge opportunity for you. If you can get your song on Spotify and use your social media channels to promote it, you’ll start building up a fanbase. It might not pay your bills, but it does massively expand your listener base and put you on the map. It’s much easier to approach record companies if you can show them the figures on Spotify and prove that thousands of people are enjoying your songs.

Playlists Can Break Hits

One of the big questions people have about Spotify is, will anybody even hear my music? There are so many artists on there and millions of songs to choose from, so how is somebody that is not already established supposed to get listened to? The thing is, Spotify curates their own playlists and if your song ends up on one, you can get millions of listens from people around the world. Some people end up having big hits because their song was featured on a popular curated playlist.

Spotify Promotes Social Media and Live Shows

Promoting yourself on social media is the best way for a new artist to get noticed, and Spotify can do a lot of that hard work for you. When people listen to your song and go on your profile, Spotify will automatically suggest your social media pages to people, so you’ll build a big following relatively quickly. It does the same for any live shows that you’ve got coming up, so you should be able to sell more tickets if you’re on Spotify. People say that you’ll never make any money from Spotify but if you make money from live gigs and Spotify is helping you fill venues, it’s working for you.

People say that Spotify isn’t worth it because artists don’t get paid much for each listen. But it’s not all about money and if you’re a new artist, being on Spotify will definitely help your career.