How to Get on Spotify's 'Fans Also Like' (Artist Association Strategy)

The function of the algorithm is to recommend users content it predicts they would engage with based on their history. Likes, shares, comments, saves, and watch time all indicate to the system that it should show the user similar content.

The algorithm largely decides whether two pieces of content are similar by analyzing whether they have shared audiences. When it detects this overlap, it forms a link, causing cross-pollination.

For example, if 10,000 people regularly listen to songs from both artists A and B on Spotify, a link between them will form. New listeners of artist A will have music from artist B shown to them, and vice versa, which is how the “Fans also like” section is formed. The same applies to social media.

That overlap is what creates scenes, bubbles of fans clustered around a sound.

Finding The Associations

The goal is to build strong connections with artists whose fans would likely enjoy your artist's music. Then Spotify recommends that music to listeners who are likely to enjoy it.

It's one of the most cost-effective ways to gain fans organically. To do that well, you first need to establish who an artist should associate with.

Step 1: Artist Analysis

The first and most important step is to listen to the artist’s music, and create a list of similar-sounding artists or artists whose fans would like them.

The two lists don't always match. Rappers Earl Sweatshirt and JPEGMAFIA sound nothing alike, but they're strongly linked in the algorithm because their fan communities overlap heavily.

That's why you need to know the artist's niche and genre well. Without a proper understanding of the scene, you’re likely to miss which artists have the best fan bases to tap into.

Step 2: Spotify & Chartmetric Connections

Once you have about ten artists, check Spotify’s “Fans also like” and Chartmetric’s “Similar Artists” sections on each of their pages. That surfaces other artists in the same niche. Listen through that web of artists and note who sounds similar and who is most strongly connected to whom.

The paid version of Chartmetric can give more data, including recent trends in their popularity as well as information about their audience demographics. If you’re a bit tech-savvy, you can even code a relatively simple program using Spotify’s API to pull an artist’s similar artists and their genre tags..

From these artists, filter for those with a similar number of monthly listeners. If the artist is brand new, artists with fewer than 100k monthly listeners will do.

It's tempting to associate with the biggest names in the genre. But their audiences tend to have more casual listeners, while smaller artists are often followed by fans who are deeply engaged with the scene.

When these hardcore fans find the artist’s music through Discover Weekly, they are more likely than casual listeners to save it to their library. That sends a stronger signal to the algorithm.

Step 3: Explore Social Media

A list of artists to associate with on Spotify isn't enough. You also need to know what content the artist’s target audience engages with on social media. Applying this knowledge allows the artist to be pushed to the right online community, giving them another avenue to be organically discovered.

First, create new accounts for social media. This sets up a clean slate to minimize bias from personal past data going into the algorithm. Follow the artists from the earlier list, taking note of the accounts that pop up under “Suggested for you” on their page. Save or share the artists’ content, specifically from accounts that regularly post short-form content and have an engaged following.

The same method can be applied to YouTube, but look at full-length videos as well as short-form. Continue until the algorithm begins recommending tailored content on the Explore page, then start engaging with those posts.

All the data here is valuable; pay attention to who is posting, what kind of content it is, and details about users in the comments.

That tells you where your artist fits among these accounts.

How to Strengthen Associations

• By this point you should have: a list of the right artists to associate with on Spotify and social media

• A strong grasp on the artist’s target audience and the spaces they occupy

• A direction for the artist’s content on social media inspired by similar artists in the same niche

The last part is building strong associations with these artists, creators, and online spaces.

In practice, that means steady engagement with those artists and communities, collaborations where they make sense, and content that fits the scene instead of fighting it. If you want a hand doing this for an artist, reach out.