Tag: spotify playlist
In search of Tampa Bay music for a Spotify playlist
The Lighter Side of Tampa Bay is a Spotify playlist I put together that is supposed to be the Adult Contemporrary version of chill; “relaxing, easy favorites.”
It originally was saturated by too many songs by artists, but I scaled that back to single-songs by artists I found and…and… It’s gone nowhere.
I know there are and were many recording artists in the Tampa Bay area, with some actively promoting themselves. I’ve never had one approach me to have one of their songs added. I haven’t gone on a search for content either as I’m busy enough and don’t listen to local shows that would highlight songs that fit the list.
I’m looking for tunes. I’m looking to highlight artists, and, most importantly for all, I am looking for listeners.
Ig you are an artist from West Central Florida with a song or music you think fits the bill, drop me a line on the Contact form. Tell me where you are from, if you’trr part of a group or a solo act. Point me to the song on Spotify. Do not submit explicit songs. Ig you happen to be one of the few artists on the playlist as-is and would like another song featured, let me know either in the comments on this post, through email contact, or on Twitter..
In both cases, it doesn’t have to be new music, but please submit songs from the past decade (210 at the latest).
If you are included on the list, I’d appreciate it if you let your fans know about the playlist. Listeners and followers is the key to gaining exposure – and royalties – for all acts involved.
Contemplating curating a weekly Spotify Playlist
Spotify playlists are a hobby or something for big-name/big-reputation people to do, no? I can tell you the few I have done are a hobby. I have no reputation, nor do the playlists stand out and draw attention. Especially the underground Underexposed Soft Rock and Easy Listening playlist. That one is huge.
Yet I sit here and I’m thinking of trying a weekly playlist. Maybe.
I listen to Lonely Oak Radio and seldom cross songs that fall into a big queue of tunes that could make the Underexposed playlist and/or the Adult Contemporary Reddit community where I post most of the content. It ultimately amounts to me promoting indie musicians in my own way. If I have fans, I don’t know about it. I do know I have some appreciative musicians who I interact with on Twitter.
My weekly-playlist thought is a 10-song list of “relaxing and easy” tunes – stuff I try for in Underexposed – and perhaps highlight certain acts who I cross and enjoy (AirCrash Detectives, Cahela and Schmitt, and Icicle among others) as well as acts I know and have tried to highlight lik3 Gypsy Star.
The thing stopping me is the fact I don’t expect to draw listeners, let alone status-symbol followers. Why do a weekly playlist if you don’t have anyone who listens? Hell, it makes me feel like people don’t enjoy the tunes I pick out as-is (though the artists appreciate it).
It’s a matter of confidence. It would also help if it were an accomplishment that paid me back fairly which my endeavors in life never seem to do.
“Relaxing. Easy. Indie.” It’s a thought. I just don’t know if it will happen.
Updated status of The Softer Side of Indie 2019 Playlist on Spotify
Back in December, I announced intentions to launch a playlist specifically of 2019 music of a chill variety — soft rock, adult contemporary,m ballads, blues, folk, alternative, pop. Songs released after December 15, 2018, are eligible for placement on the playlist.
At this time there are 36 songs on the list with most discovered on Reddit.com’s indie music subreddit. Others were found while I was checking on other songs by artists who were queued for the Underexposed Soft Rock and Easy Listening playlist. And in one lone instance, I had a PR firm reach out to me so that a major act found it’s way onto the list. Yeah, unlike “Underexposed”, I’m not limiting this to underground acts… While most of the songs are by the Do It Yourself indie variety, there’s at least two by acts who have some hold on the mainstream in their alt/indie variety. Some of the DIY indie acts have more exposure and success online than acts I tend to highlight on the other playlist.
Read MoreMusic Tampa Bay’s 2015 Top 100 list is now a Spotify playlist
Music Tampa Bay, the St. Pete-based radio station and online streaming station that highlights music from Tampa Bay and West Central Florida musicians, is known for having an annual Top 100 list. The list is a compilation of 100 songs from the previous year that had received the highest vote tallies on weekly Top 40 lists/polls featured on the station’s web site. The Top 100 ran from 2008 up until this year.
I’ve done a service for featured artists on that list of putting together a link-to-the-works listing three times – 2008, 2016, and 2017. The whole rationale is because graphic lists of songs don’t give people (not just station listeners) the chance to actually hear the songs, or find out about the artists. Not all of the songs are available online as the artists didn’t necessarily use distribution companies that went that route.
In more recent months, I’ve put the 2008, ’16 and ’17 lists – what songs I could find – into Spotify playlists. The listings all have just over half the 100 listed songs.
That said, I’d like to announce the addition of the 2015 Music Tampa Bay Top 100 list (well, 53 of the Top 100) as available on Spotify.
Read More“The Playlist Exchange” is a promotional avenue for content on Spotify
Just a heads up for musical artists who are looking to promote their tunes on Spotify as well as for people running niche playlists who want to promote that list, there’s a place for that.
The Spotify Community is a message forum area devoted to the Spotify platform, covering a lot of areas of the field including playlists. The Playlist Exchange is the specific forum in the community where playlists are promoted and curators look for new songs to add to their lists. Many music genres get covered, but so do many niche areas such as topics, moods, musical arrangements and what have you.
Mind you, the Exchange may be an avenue for promotion but it doesn’t guarantee songs getting added to playlists or people actually following a playlist you post. I’ve submitted music by little known groups to playlists (songs by artists I am not associated with, I’m just a fan of) and got passed over while I’ve also posted my Underexposed Soft Rock and Easy Listening list with little gain.
Marketing is a chore. The Playlist Exchange is simply a potential contributor to goal achievement.
2017 Music Tampa Bay Top 100 — now a Spotify playlist
Music Tampa Bay‘s annual Top 100 lists (which ran from 2008 through 2017) featured a wide swath of music — we’re talking genres and time-of-publication. Some of the songs were relatively new releases, some were much older. All of them were from artists derived from the Tampa Bay and west central Florida area. I use that as a lead-in to the 2017 Music Tampa Bay Top 100 playlist on Spotify because only 54 of the 100 songs were on Spotify (or at least that’s the amount I found).
While some of the songs are very much available online, others aren’t and some are on select sales and streaming avenues and not on Spotify. Another issue I’ll cite here is that the Top 100 list for 2017 was hindered with thanks to Hurricane Irma’s effects on the Tampa Bay area. While that has nothing to do with only 54 songs on this list, it does explain why some of the songs on this list were also part of the 2016 Top 100 list (…a playlist with only 57 of 100 songs).
I very much intend to add the 2008 Top 100 listing to the Spotify playlists, but if these more recent lists are getting just over half the list songs, I don’t expect 2008 to do better. We’ll see about that.
One other thing — if you’re a Music Tampa Bay listener or a musician featured on Music Tampa Bay, I encourage you to donate to the station. They are a non-profit station trying to promote music created by local musicians. It costs to broadcast and stream online, though. Every bit of supportive income helps.
A pop playlist of “relaxing, easy favorites” on Spotify
“Relaxing, easy favorites… with less talk!” That radio pitch from how-many stations in collaboration or owned by the same company? Maybe I’m wrong on that, but “Warm 107 FM” / “Warm 107.3 FM”, “Warm 94.9 FM” all pushed he same type of easy-listening, or a toned-down variety of music from the past few years or longer. It wasn’t that distant to the past that the stations trekked from what I remember… except in rare events for shock or approval. Seeing I’m referencing stuff I heard on the airwaves in the 80’s and 90’s, basically those throw-back numbers were from the 60’s… if they happened at all.
A few years ago I started putting together a personal playlist on my iTunes that mixed together a number of songs that weren’t rockers, or necessarily pop… Then again, some are legendary (Yesterday by the Beatles, Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton, Hotel California by the Eagles). The song list grew as I remembered certain tunes from the past as well as picked up some indie songs by way of listening to Lonely Oak Radio.
That’s led to a playlist of 224 songs spanning a total of 13 hours and 49 minutes. Not all of them perfectly fit the motif of “relaxing, easy favorites” but that’s the title of the playlist. And my own recreation of it is available on Spotify.
The Spotify list doesn’t perfectly recreate things as I’ve taken certain songs off my personal list, I was unable to add others (such as Paul McCartney’s (I Want To) Come Home, Michael Stipe’s mixed-group performance of U2’s One, as well as others). It’s still 182 songs in length…
I could see people arguing “relaxing” does not describe performances by the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s (stuck in silence (for the rest of my life) and not mess with music that I miss. Who knows? The point is – the playlist is public on Spotify and maybe you’ll be interested in looking into it or – gasp! – listening.
