🎯 Step 1: Identify Relevant Audiences to Target
a) Check the Clusters Table on the Artist Overview view:
The overview is the first screen you will lend on once you open an artist snapshot, and you can always come back here using the navigation panel on the left.
Use the Clusters table to shortlist artist clusters potentially aligned with your artistic goals, strategy and promoted release. Check the top artists in a cluster, associated genres, addressable audience pools, and similarity scores (gauging the strength of your artist's connection to a cluster): higher score = stronger connection.
Leverage these insights to assess whether a cluster aligns with your artist’s / release sound, mood, and desired audience profile:
💡 Example: If you’re promoting a dreamy indie pop release, look for clusters featuring artists like Clairo or Dayglow and genres such as indie pop, bedroom pop, chillwave, and dreampop. Multiple clusters might fit your initial criteria.
b) Dive deeper into each cluster using the Cluster Focus view:
Access the Cluster Focus view by clicking on any row in the Clusters table or via the navigation panel on the left. From the "All clusters" section, you can navigate between clusters using the dropdown selector.
This view allows you to study each algorithmic audience across five primary dimensions: artists, genres, audience demographics, tracks (measuring how the artist's catalog relate to the cluster audience) and playlists.
A robust understanding of the cluster audience will help you prioritize and effectively tailor your marketing approach.
💡 Example: You notice the cluster's playlists are dominated by Gym & Workout themes, suggesting workout as a key consumption context. Leverage this insight by pitching to relevant editorial and third-party playlists or including "workout" and "gym" as audience interests in digital platform targeting.
c) Assess cluster connections on the Artist Map:
Navigate to the Map section via the left navigation panel to examine cluster-to-cluster connections and assess potential halo effects. This helps you understand the connections between your artist and their clusters, as well as the ties between clusters themselves. Use this information to anticipate the halo effects of your targeting.
💡 Example: You find that the first cluster, while well-aligned with the upcoming release, has a limited addressable audience. You expand your target to include adjacent clusters on the Clusters Map, broadening your reach while maintaining consistency.
d) Use the Audience section to finalize your target:
Navigate to the Audience section and filter relevant clusters using the multi select dropdown at the top right of the screen.
This lets you benchmark cluster demographics and shape your final target, summarizing the audience profile when combining multiple clusters. Use age, gender, and location data to confirm alignment with your strategy and inspire your marketing campaign.
💡 Example: Brazil emerges as the second-largest market in your target (32% of the audience pool, after the US). With this insight, you emphasize Brazil in your marketing plan by running a dedicated digital campaign in Portuguese, securing local PR, and pitching to local support.
📤 Step 2: Export Cluster Data for Easy Spotify Optimization and Digital Campaign Targeting
To export your target audience, click "Download targeting report" at the top of the page. Make sure that your filters are set to relevant clusters before you export.
From the following screen, choose "Request targeting report" option to receive an email with all the necessary information regarding your selected clusters, in order to target them precisely in your future marketing campaigns on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok AND SPOTIFY.
For optimization on Meta, YouTube and TikTok, check our dedicated guides
Putting Data to Practice: Spotify Optimization
a) Optimize Your Spotify Track or Album Pitch
Use the Genres tab in the Cluster Focus view or the exported top genres list to optimize your Spotify pitch. Spotify recognizes over 6,000 genres to categorize artist profiles, and this detailed genre data helps you identify the genres associated with your target audience. Note that not all genres will be available for selection on the Spotify form.
Navigate to the Genres for Spotify Pitch tab and use top genres to optimize your pitch, increasing the chance of your track getting picked up by the editorial team and recommended via the algorithm.
💡 Example: If your target cluster is heavy on “indie folk” and “alt-country”, include these in your pitch to increase editorial playlist consideration. This improves both editorial visibility and algorithmic recommendations.
Optimize your Spotify Audio and Video Ads
Use Spotify Ads Manager to target audiences based on your identified target clusters:
a) Open Spotify Ads manager and create a new audio or video campaign. Go through the flow, selecting your campaign objective and Name, untill you get to the "Ad Set" step
b) Under Targeting, go to the Detailed targeting section and select Fan bases
c) Search for the artists in your target clusters and add all of them to your target list (or manually select the most relevant ones fi your targets are getting too broad).
Optimize your Artist Playlists
Curate thematic playlists that combine your artist’s tracks with songs from relevant artists in your target clusters. This helps engage listeners, expand your artist universe, and strengthen your algorithmic profile on Spotify (you can always use the Cluster Sample Playlist as a starting point)
A successful artist playlist cultivates shared listenership patterns, reinforcing algorithmic ties to other artists featured on the playlist and increasing your chances of being recommended to their audiences.
💡 Keep Playlists On-Brand: Ensure playlists reflect your artist’s universe on Spotify. Pay attention to the playlist cover, name, and description. For an indie electronic artist, create a playlist like Chill and Electric Nights, featuring your artist alongside acts like ODESZA and Tycho.
💡 Pro Tip: Use a 1:3 ratio of your artist's tracks to others. Place your artist’s songs at the top to maximize streaming volume and help Spotify algorithms establish stronger connections.
