[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":232},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post:\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-following-an-artist-on-spotify-does":3,"related-blog-posts:\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-following-an-artist-on-spotify-does":224},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"date":200,"dateModified":201,"description":202,"draft":203,"extension":204,"heroImage":205,"meta":206,"navigation":207,"ogImage":205,"path":208,"relatedSlugs":209,"seo":216,"stem":217,"tags":218,"__hash__":223},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-following-an-artist-on-spotify-does.md","What following an artist on Spotify does \u002F\u002F and doesn't",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":190},"minimark",[9,17,20,25,28,31,39,43,46,49,52,56,59,62,65,68,72,75,78,81,89,93,96,99,102,115,123,127,131,134],[10,11,12,16],"p",{},[13,14,15],"strong",{},"The short version:"," yes, following an artist on Spotify does something. It adds them to Your Library, feeds your recommendations and puts their new music in your Following feed and some of it in Release Radar. The artist sees one more follower, never your name. It doesn't save any songs, and as of October 2026 there's still no Spotify follow for a record label, producer or songwriter.",[10,18,19],{},"Following an artist means tapping Follow on their profile, which saves them to Your Library. Spotify's help page says you do it to \"never miss a new release\" and to get better recommendations. The recommendations part is hard to check. The new-release part oversells the button.",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"what-happens-when-you-follow-an-artist-on-spotify","What happens when you follow an artist on Spotify",[10,26,27],{},"The artist shows up in Your Library under Artists, with a \"Fans also like\" row when you open them, and the follow becomes a recommendation signal. Spotify doesn't say how much it counts against what you actually play, and I wouldn't guess.",[10,29,30],{},"The best reason to press the button is the Following feed, added for music in July 2025 and found on mobile under Home, then Music, then Following. Spotify pitches it as one place for the latest releases from artists you follow, \"the moment they hit\", and it's as near as Spotify gets to a list of what's new from them.",[10,32,33,38],{},[34,35,37],"a",{"href":36},"\u002Fblog\u002Fspotify-release-radar-how-it-works","Release Radar"," draws on the artists you follow as well, alongside artists you listen to and ones Spotify thinks you'll like. A follow gets an artist in the running, not a guaranteed slot.",[21,40,42],{"id":41},"can-artists-see-who-follows-them-on-spotify","Can artists see who follows them on Spotify?",[10,44,45],{},"No. Spotify for Artists shows an artist the total number of followers, but not the names of the people behind it. Your follow is a number on a dashboard.",[10,47,48],{},"What the artist gets is a better shot at you coming back. Spotify's own figure: on average, after following an artist, listeners are three times more likely to stream that artist's music in the next six months. I'd read that as part cause and part selection, because people who bother to follow were probably fans already.",[10,50,51],{},"So does your follow help the artist? From where you're sitting, a little. Their count goes up by one, and their next release has a route to you that doesn't depend on Spotify guessing you'd like it.",[21,53,55],{"id":54},"following-isnt-liking-and-it-doesnt-save-music","Following isn't liking, and it doesn't save music",[10,57,58],{},"Following saves the artist, not their songs, and saving a song doesn't follow the artist either.",[10,60,61],{},"Liking a song is a separate action. Spotify now calls it saving, done with the plus button, and a saved song goes into your Liked Songs playlist. You can save every track on an album without following the artist, or follow an artist without a single one of their songs in Liked Songs. Artists see follows and saves as separate counts too.",[10,63,64],{},"None of it downloads anything. A follow is a library entry, not a file, so following a few hundred artists won't fill your phone.",[10,66,67],{},"Following a friend is a different thing again. Follow another listener's profile and you see what they're playing in Listening Activity. Same word, different job.",[21,69,71],{"id":70},"following-wont-catch-every-release","Following won't catch every release",[10,73,74],{},"\"Never miss a new release\" is a big promise for a button.",[10,76,77],{},"Release Radar was never built to keep it. It takes one song per artist per week, skips anything you've already listened to, and only counts songs where the artist is main or featured, so following a producer like Mustard won't bring you the tracks he produced for other artists. That's a sensible design for a weekly playlist. It's not a release tracker.",[10,79,80],{},"The Following feed is the better view, but it's a feed. You have to go and open it. Spotify's help pages don't document a release alert for followed artists. The nearest thing is a pre-save, which gets you a push notification on release day, but only for albums and EPs with a Countdown Page.",[10,82,83,84,88],{},"You can also follow podcasts, shows, other people's profiles and, since 2025, venues. For music, though, it's artists only. A label's releases and a producer's or songwriter's credits have no follow, which is ",[34,85,87],{"href":86},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-find-new-music-on-spotify#what-spotify-still-wont-follow","where Spotify still stops",", however you dig.",[21,90,92],{"id":91},"should-you-follow-artists-on-spotify","Should you follow artists on Spotify?",[10,94,95],{},"Yes, and I wouldn't be precious about it. A follow costs you nothing. And it's the only standing way to tell Spotify you want an artist's new music, instead of leaving it to infer that from what you play. If you've played an artist more than a couple of times and you'd want to know when they put something out, follow them.",[10,97,98],{},"Don't ration your follows, either. The Following feed is only as good as the list behind it.",[10,100,101],{},"Where following stops working is past the artist. A new Hyperdub record by someone you've never heard of won't reach your Following feed just because you follow Burial. That's the gap I built Tracknack for.",[10,103,104,105,109,110,114],{},"Tracknack can import the artists you already follow on Spotify. Then you add the labels you want to ",[34,106,108],{"href":107},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-track-record-label-releases-automatically","track automatically"," and the ",[34,111,113],{"href":112},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-follow-producers-and-songwriters-for-new-releases","producers and songwriters"," you spot in the credits, and it keeps one playlist on Spotify or Apple Music updated with their new releases. Credits are often missing, though, and a credit follow can't catch a name nobody listed.",[10,116,117,118,122],{},"The free plan covers 30 follows, and keeping your Spotify follows and unfollows in sync takes Premium. It's also slower. Playlists update weekly by default, and from September 8 to October 5, 2026, the median release took 4.7 days to land in a weekly playlist, so for an artist you already follow, the Following feed gets there first. Tracknack is for everything that feed can't follow. Here's ",[34,119,121],{"href":120},"\u002Fspotify-new-releases","how it compares with Spotify's own new release features",".",[124,125],"blog-faq",{":items":126},"[{\"question\":\"Does following an artist on Spotify do anything?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. Following an artist on Spotify adds them to Your Library under Artists, helps shape Spotify's recommendations, and puts their new music in the Following feed (Home, then Music, then Following in the mobile app) and in Release Radar. It doesn't save or download any of the artist's songs. Release Radar takes only one song per artist per week, so the Following feed is the fuller view of a followed artist's new releases.\"},{\"question\":\"Can artists see who follows them on Spotify?\",\"answer\":\"No. As of October 2026, Spotify for Artists shows an artist the total number of people who follow their profile, but not the names of individual followers.\"},{\"question\":\"Does following an artist on Spotify help them?\",\"answer\":\"A little. Each follow adds one to the artist's follower count in Spotify for Artists, and followers get the artist's new music through Release Radar and Spotify's feed of new releases. As of October 2026, Spotify says that, on average, listeners who follow an artist are 3 times more likely to stream that artist's music in the next 6 months.\"},{\"question\":\"What's the difference between following an artist and liking their songs on Spotify?\",\"answer\":\"Following an artist saves the artist to Your Library and feeds their new releases to you through Release Radar and the Following feed. Liking a song, which Spotify now calls saving it with the plus button, adds that one song to your Liked Songs playlist. Neither triggers the other: following an artist doesn't save their songs, and saving a song doesn't follow the artist. Artists see followers and saves as separate counts.\"},{\"question\":\"Does following an artist on Spotify take up storage?\",\"answer\":\"No. Spotify's storage help page lists the cache and music or podcasts downloaded for offline listening as what uses space on your device. Following an artist adds them to Your Library as an entry and doesn't download any of their songs.\"}]",[21,128,130],{"id":129},"sources-and-notes","Sources and notes",[10,132,133],{},"Checked in October 2026.",[135,136,137,147,155,163,171,179,187],"ul",{},[138,139,140,146],"li",{},[34,141,145],{"href":142,"rel":143},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.spotify.com\u002Fus\u002Farticle\u002Ffollow-artists-podcasts-and-shows\u002F",[144],"nofollow","Spotify Support: Follow artists, podcasts and shows"," - what following does, and where the Following feed lives",[138,148,149,154],{},[34,150,153],{"href":151,"rel":152},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.spotify.com\u002Fus\u002Fartists\u002Farticle\u002Funderstanding-your-listener-and-follower-stats\u002F",[144],"Spotify for Artists: Understanding your listener and follower stats"," - the 3x streaming figure",[138,156,157,162],{},[34,158,161],{"href":159,"rel":160},"https:\u002F\u002Fnewsroom.spotify.com\u002F2025-07-30\u002F4-must-try-features-that-make-spotify-the-best-place-to-be-a-fan\u002F",[144],"Spotify Newsroom: Music Following feed"," - July 2025",[138,164,165,170],{},[34,166,169],{"href":167,"rel":168},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.spotify.com\u002Fus\u002Farticle\u002Fyour-library\u002F",[144],"Spotify Support: Your Library"," - following saves the artist, not the songs",[138,172,173,178],{},[34,174,177],{"href":175,"rel":176},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.spotify.com\u002Fus\u002Fartists\u002Farticle\u002Fgetting-started-with-countdown-pages-on-spotify\u002F",[144],"Spotify for Artists: Countdown Pages"," - release-day alerts for pre-savers",[138,180,181,186],{},[34,182,185],{"href":183,"rel":184},"https:\u002F\u002Fsupport.spotify.com\u002Fus\u002Fartists\u002Farticle\u002Fgetting-music-on-release-radar\u002F",[144],"Spotify for Artists: Getting music on Release Radar"," - one song per artist per week",[138,188,189],{},"Tracknack production data - releases added to 341 weekly-updated playlists, September 8 to October 5, 2026",{"title":191,"searchDepth":192,"depth":192,"links":193},"",2,[194,195,196,197,198,199],{"id":23,"depth":192,"text":24},{"id":41,"depth":192,"text":42},{"id":54,"depth":192,"text":55},{"id":70,"depth":192,"text":71},{"id":91,"depth":192,"text":92},{"id":129,"depth":192,"text":130},"2026-10-16","2026-10-21","What following an artist on Spotify does: Your Library, recommendations, Release Radar and the Following feed. What artists see, and what it won't do.",false,"md",null,{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhat-following-an-artist-on-spotify-does",[210,211,212,213,214,215],"spotify-release-radar-how-it-works","how-to-find-new-music-on-spotify","how-to-follow-producers-and-songwriters-for-new-releases","find-record-label-of-a-song","how-to-track-record-label-releases-automatically","how-spotify-radio-works",{"title":5,"description":202},"blog\u002Fwhat-following-an-artist-on-spotify-does",[219,220,221,222],"spotify","new releases","music discovery","release radar","a4OfXulKnUl2WZfyy9GPVKwApAV7C6wpiaZ5llApVWU",[225,227,230],{"path":36,"title":226},"Spotify Release Radar \u002F\u002F when it updates and what it skips",{"path":228,"title":229},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-find-new-music-on-spotify","How to find new music on Spotify \u002F\u002F and what's missing",{"path":112,"title":231},"How to follow producers and songwriters for new releases",1792667059663]