<aside> 🧱 Hi, I'm Brick Blair.

I created this to make my life easier, and thought other artists might find it useful.

I'm an indie singer-songwriter who has been making music for many years but only recently started to take its marketing and promotion seriously. In 2021 I released my first song commercially, launched a website, played a live show in an off-Broadway theater, and kicked off a multi-step campaign with video, text, motion graphics, and other elements. I am now in the middle of executing on a long-term plan.

Note that the Spotify platform is constantly changing, so it is likely that some of this information will be out-of-date. I will revisit and update periodically.

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Overview

Contents

Spotify recently announced updates to its playlist “Blend” feature, which now allows up to 10 users to connect around a Spotify algorithmically generated playlist that blends each user’s musical tastes.

I am curious if there is a way that we as indie musicians could use this feature to help market our music and ourselves.

This page both documents this capability and explores some rough initial marketing ideas.

What is Blend?

Discover and Listen to Music With Even More Friends and Family-Plus Some of Your Favorite Artists-With Spotify's Newest Blend Update - Spotify

The key features of Blend are:

• You can invite up to 10 other Spotify users. Connected people will see your profile picture and username.
• Spotify algorithmically populates a collaborative playlist based on the data it has on each user’s musical tastes.
• The playlist is updated daily with songs based on everyone’s listening habits.
• Spotify will make song recommendations that reflect everyone’s music preferences and taste.
• The Blend playlist indicates which songs in the playlist are connected to which user.
• Spotify automatically creates a playlist “Story” that can be shared on social media.
• You don’t need to know someone’s Spotify username to invite them, they are invited via a link.
• Blend playlist show up in Made for You ****and in Your Library, under Playlists.
• It does not appear to be possible to create a custom name or cover for the Blend playlist.

Indie Music Marketing Opportunities?

I’ve sketched out a few first-impression use cases for Blend playlists as indie music marketing below. What else could we do with this capability?

1. Create and promote a Blend playlist with other artists.

Work with a group of other indie musicians that you collaborate with or otherwise have a relationship with to create a Blend playlist that each of you then market to your audience.