Spotify’s algorithmic playlist Release Radar is changing, and not for the better. Alternate versions such as acoustic versions of songs will no longer be eligible for Release Radar.
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So if I release on Tuesdays this might be a bad thing for me to dd going forward? My followers who listen on release won’t see it the next few weeks…
I have a track I put on Spotify in 2020. What happens if you delete it before uploading the new version?
Very confusing. I listen to tracks that may be released on a Wednesday all the time…and I typically see them on my Release Radar on Friday. But also, they state listeners will only get "one song per artist per week"…But as I type this, the top 2 slots on my Release Radar are from the same artist and new album! I see multiple tracks from new albums on my Release Radar regularly…though I tend to see changes on my Release Radar over the weekend at random which could be them "cleaning things up" after Release Radar drops to align with their stipulations. I think there are issues/errors going on (as usual) behind the scenes. And with alternative/live versions now being omitted, that's unfortunate as I know an artist right now that just released a phenomenal live version of her album…but apparently, Spotify won't push the live version to her 10k+ followers' Release Radar smh.
I can confirm, the exact same happened to me in december also. I found out because a fan told me it was not in release radar for them. Then i checked my stats and noticed all my streaming services has higher stream numbers than spotify. I thought it was just me being acrewed over by spotify.
New fans also liked it terrible also. Just puts you with smaller artists with no music correlation .
Damn, thanks for this info Andrew! I have a Live From The Studio EP lined up, but after hearing this I’ll just drop it unceremoniously as a bonus goody sometime instead of waterfalling it. Bummer to hear, but I really appreciate the intel!
Hello!! Your growth course is useful to spanish market? Thanks
Good video Andrew
thanks french montana
The thing about if you listen it doesn't appear in Release Radar has been happening to me for at least a year, pretty sure since 2023 tbh
this company has us on strings…
what if you call your alternative version an acoustic remix on a distributor level ?
We just got 45,000 streams from release radar playlist for our latest release. The streams all came in exactly on the 29th day. We only had like 5,000 streams from release radar in the first 28 days. (Total 110k streams first 30 days from Facebook ads)
I'm an artist, but I definitely agree with Spotify on this. Release radar is there to let people discover new songs and new artists, not the 12th version of the same song. Back in the day, when music was on physical media, you released the different versions all on the same record. 'radio edit', 'trance version', 'extended version' were all ONE release. And nobody would ever buy a radio edit record of a song they already have. And btw, milking the cover-of-my-own-songs cow is pretty lame imho.
No wonder why my last 3 sped up/slowed songs got zero streams😭😂 I uploaded as Alternate Versions. Live and you learn.
this makes perfectly sense imo. I've seen so many people who released like 6 different versions of their song (slowed, slowed+reverb,live version, etc) and there are only so many slots available in release radar. Why should someone be included with a slowed version that took 20sec to make instead of someone who just spent hours or days making a original new song?
Tbh alt versions should just be a service to fans of the song, not a streaming driver, so it makes sense. Artists should stop trying these hack schemes to boost their profiles, what does 10000+ streams matter at these rates anyway. When I read my stats, it seems that where I run ad campaigns on SoMe, the algorithmic push from Spotify decreases. Can there be some truth to this? My streams become more selfcontained, but then also the incentive to run campaigns decreases..
Thanks
How do this effect new kids on the block? I’m dropping a single in Feb new to this I have zero followers at the moment 🤔
Thanx for the insight analysis. Indeed music gets poorer with more remixes than genuine alternative versions of a song. Spotify didn't missed the opportunity to drag music down again.
Thank you Andrew for this video. This is shocking news. I just submitted a track via Distrokid that is a hands-free live Looping Edition of one of my tracks for January 31th. When I submitted it, I put the same song name and marked it as an alternative version (Live Looping Edition). So this is probably the case where It will not get on Release Radar. I can relate, that e.g. Slowed + Reverb Versions or versions that are so easy to make should not get the same exposure as new tracks. But in this case I spend more time for rearranging and recording the song than for creating a new song.
Anyway, I will report here, what happened when my track got released and if it gets no streams from release radar, I will not tag Live looping versions as alternate versions anymore.
Just make new music, no reason to milk the same releases with different versions
Spotify is becoming something else really, took 1k plus streams off our artist song My Heart by Paanda and they could not prove proof of Artificial streaming, we didnt do playlist campaign, we just ran conversion ads using Facebook snd Instagram
Does this restriction apply to releasing a vocal mix of a previously released instrumental? I guess I should set the vocal mix release date to drop Friday & see what happens 🤔
Guys it’s an impossible battle. Just quit music. They’re just going to promote the big artists owned by big labels who own Spotify and all the streaming platforms.
My latest release never showed in release radar with over 5K streams in week 1. 🤦🏽♂️
Does this affect waterfall releases???
Remix is a different artist typically, that's why…
I think it's a good move by Spotify. As a listener I don't want to hear 5 versions of one song every month, taking up space of other artist's new original music. Any tactic trying to play Spotify's main goal, which is promote new, original, great music will eventually fail. Maybe you can ride a loophole for a bit but it's never a good long term strategy. Cheating here I understand in a broader sense. In other words, it's much easier to create a different version of an existing song than creating a new song. So the strategy should be dis-incentivized.
Hey can someone help me understand, if you rerelease a song but one of the verses has been replaced with another artist (so including that artist as a feature on this rerelease of the song) would that be classed as a remix or an alternative version of the track?
And do you guys experience performance drop or change from the Release Radar Algorithm? For my last 2 release with much better stats than before the RR push was just a few hundred streams.
They are probably doing this to reduce people uploading music that isn't theirs or having too many generic versions of songs, like sped up tracks.
So, best strategy is now to rename a "blabla" mix-version into a "blabla" remix, with leaving the version field empty ?
I have a release in one week, should I try this ?
It's fantastic they are removing no effort versions of already released music.
Thanks for the PSA! Sadly this is just another of many changes that big corporations are making in an effort to maximize their own profits at the cost of artists. There has to be a better solution, and i know this is something artists have struggled with forever; It has just evolved from playing the record label game to playing the streaming platform game. Please keep creating, even if it only gets heard by a few people!
TY this is really good info!!
I'm disappointed with this. As independent artists, we need every bit of help we can get.
I have released 2 versions of one song before as I loved them both, and they were different enough.
I don't do this with every song, and I don't do 10 versions etc
This will definitely have a huge effect on me.
I also have unreleased versions where I get a feature and they change the Chorus or add a verse.
I believe these should still get release Radar.
If an artist abuses it consistently, then you can always unfollow them. They shouldn't ruin it for everyone else
So when do we hace to release tracks and what time?
What do you think Happens with following example:
1 Artist got 3 Version of one song.
1. Bandversion
2. Acousticversion
3. Pianoversion
We create for every version a new spotifyprofil:
1. the normal bandname
2. bandname with the add acoustic
3. bandname with the add piano
Then we release every version on the specific artistpage, but we do a feat. as primary artist with the original artistpage.
Could this work?
Good move by Spotify. Wish the video hadn’t been so long and wasted so much of my time though.
i've personally been seeing almost next to no activity from my release radar. almost like they are binning the playlist. i use to get huge release radar spikes and now nothing.
I’ve only been on Spotify for a few months, and I agree with this change because I believe a different version of the same song is not new music. But what I’ve noticed in a very short time, is that I believe the bigger problem here is that Spotify is all about artists signed to major record labels. And the fact that remixes are excluded, and the comments made by the host regarding why they’re excluded proves my point.