Recipe: pitch an unreleased song to Spotify editorial

What you get: an unreleased song in front of Spotify's playlist editors, and onto your followers' Release Radar.

What it costs: nothing from Spotify. Neither the pitching page nor the access page mentions a fee (read 28 Oct 2026). The only money in this recipe is the distributor you already paid to deliver the song.

The one hard deadline: Spotify says to deliver your music at least 7 days before release so editors have time to listen, and that a song pitched at least 7 days ahead is added to your followers' Release Radar playlists. Aim for 14 days so a slow distributor or a slow access request doesn't eat the window.

The steps

1. Deliver the song with a future release date (1 hour, distributor fee only). The pitch form only shows songs that are delivered but not yet live, under Music, then Upcoming. Set a date at least two weeks out.
2. Get Spotify for Artists access (15 minutes, then up to a few days, free). Submit a request and add a link to your website or social channels to verify who you are. Spotify says requests are reviewed manually and "approval can take a few days". If you deliver through one of its preferred providers you get access automatically when you request it. For a first release that isn't out yet, the page says to get your artist link from your distributor and contact Spotify support with it and the release's UPC or EAN. If a team for the artist already exists, you can't join it; ask its Admin to invite you.
3. Check you are allowed to pitch (2 minutes, free). Anyone with Admin or Editor access can submit and edit the pitch. You can't pitch compilations or songs where you are only a featured artist.
4. Choose the one song (10 minutes, free). You can pitch one song at a time, and the next only after the pitched one goes live. For an EP, pick the track you'd want a stranger to hear first.
5. Fill in the pitch form (30 to 45 minutes, free). Log in at artists.spotify.com, open Music, then Upcoming, choose the song and complete the form. Spotify's only advice is that "more detail gives your song a better chance"; the help page lists no fields or character limits, so write the description in a text file first.
6. Edit if needed, up to release day (5 minutes, free). You can, but Spotify says there is "no guarantee our editors will see the changes". Treat the first submission as final.
7. Pin it to This Is, if you have one (5 minutes, free). Eligible artists can pin the pitched song; Spotify says it takes about 3 days after the song is available and stays up to 28 days after release.
8. Release day and after (10 minutes, free). Check Music, then Playlists to see where it landed. Pitching doesn't guarantee a placement, and editors may pick a different song than the one you pitched.

Total: about 1.5 to 2 hours of work, plus up to a few days of waiting for access, and no Spotify fee.

What we think

The guaranteed prize here is not the editorial playlist; it's Release Radar. Spotify promises nothing on editorial placement, but it does say a song pitched 7 days ahead reaches your followers' Release Radar. So the pitch is worth doing for every release even if you expect no editor to bite, and it rewards building followers more than polishing pitch copy.

The step that actually costs people the window is step 2, not the form. Access is reviewed by hand and can take days, and a first release has an extra support step. Request access the day you upload, not the week of release.