Adding Social Media Metrics into the SPT Curator Search:Finding High-Engagement Playlist Curators

A walkthrough of how using social media meta data could strengthen curator quality and ultimately, earn more consistent streaming numbers for TREND artists

August 15, 2026 By Zoe Lester

This guide demonstrates my process as a playlist consumer for finding new, quality playlists and describes a potential addition to SPT inspired by my own searches. By leveraging hashtags and analyzing listener engagement metrics, you can identify authentic curators with highly engaged audiences that generate more long-term streams.

This workflow is intended to couple SPT's Spotify scraping with social media metrics in order to ultimately achieve more consistent weekly streaming increases for TREND artists via playlisting. Use it during the curator discovery and vetting phases to ensure outreach targets high-quality, engaging profiles rather than inactive playlists.

Finding curators natively on streaming services often surfaces one-off personal playlists that went viral but lack an actively engaged audience. Social media curators, on the other hand, actively work to build public trust and dedicated fan bases.

When searching TikTok or Instagram, try testing various hashtags to locate different types of curators:

Hashtag / Search Term	Best For
`#musicdiscovery`	Finding broad music recommenders and trendsetters.
`#playlistcuration` / `#playlistcurator`	Locating dedicated users specifically building and sharing playlists.
`#spotifyplaylist`	Targeting curators focused entirely on the Spotify platform.

Locate Curators on Social Media

Step #1: Navigate to TikTok (or Instagram) and search for a discovery hashtag, such as #musicdiscovery, to view popular curator content. — Navigate to TikTok (or Instagram) and search for a discovery hashtag, such as **#musicdiscovery**, to view popular curator content.

Step #2: Click on a promising video from the search results grid to evaluate the curator's style. — Click on a promising video from the search results grid to evaluate the curator's style.

Click the creator's username to view their profile, checking their follower count and overall content consistency.

Prioritize the listener engagement metric over raw follower counts. High engagement directly correlates to consistent long-term stream generation.

Step #4: Click the link in their bio (such as a Linktree) to access their centralized playlist links. — Click the link in their bio (such as a Linktree) to access their centralized playlist links.

Select the Spotify icon or direct playlist link to open their curator profile natively in the streaming app.

Step #6: Click Show all in the Public Playlists section on Spotify to review their full catalog of active playlists. Check to see if follow counts across playlists are consistent rather than a curator having one viral playlist. — Click **Show all** in the Public Playlists section on Spotify to review their full catalog of active playlists. Check to see if follow counts across playlists are consistent rather than a curator having one viral playlist.

Authentic social media curators typically maintain consistent follower and engagement numbers across multiple playlists, rather than having a massive following on just one.

Analyze Engagement Metrics

Step #7: Open a playlist tracking application, such as artist.tools or Chartmetric. — Open a playlist tracking application, such as artist.tools or Chartmetric.

Step #8: Paste the curator's playlist link to analyze their listener engagement and verify steady, organic follower growth. — Paste the curator's playlist link to analyze their listener engagement and verify steady, organic follower growth.

Consider the listener engagement metric in addition to raw follower counts. High engagement directly correlates to consistent long-term stream generation, a playlist with a lot of followers means nothing if those followers aren't actively producing streams and following along with curation updates.

Cross-Reference with Internal Tools

Q: Why search for curators on social media in addition to on Spotify directly?

A: Social media curators actively work to build fan bases and public trust, resulting in higher listener engagement. Directly scraping streaming platforms often surfaces personal playlists that went viral but don't have dedicated, returning listeners. Using social media during the vetting and review process could help find curators with consistent followings across playlists and stronger listener engagement.

Q: What might this look like on SPT?

A: SPT is already an incredibly powerful tool and is scraping what is arguably the most important data: the playlists themselves. Adding in a feature that scrapes social media data alongside Spotify could take form in a hashtag search, followed my a listening engagement check on Chartmetric or artist.tools. Together, these two searches could funnel a large pool of playlists and contacts into a tighter set of prospective curators who can get TREND artists consistent streaming numbers from week to week.

I was initially interested in finding a way to improve this process after noticing some trends in the SPT check-in. While all of the playlists we place with had high followings, the same handful tend to produce thousands of streams for artists each week while the same group of other playlists were only generating tens of streams.

I then did some deeper research, comparing metrics from some curators I found using this process to some playlists I was frequently updating streaming numbers for every Monday morning. Interestingly, I was finding that while some of the placements on SPT had higher playlist followings, their listener engagement percentages were trending lower than playlists made by curators I found using this process. So, I figured by combining both a Spotify scrape and a social media scrape, there might be a way to find playlists with high followings and high listener engagement all in one.