For years, I've watched the music business change. I try to keep up. But when it comes to how people listen, I haven't.

Streaming music is the future of the music industry. I tried Pandora, but it turns out they don't want Celtic music from indie artists. I have countless stories of Celtic musicians being denied play on Pandora. It's a shame for artists and music fans.

Spotify is the music streaming juggernaut. They own the biggest market share. Thanks to CD Baby, you can listen to ALL of my music on Spotify, whether your talking about traditional Irish or Scottish songs for my unique brand of sci fi drinking songs. It's all there, just a click away.

In fact, Spotify even allows you to download music direct to your phone. So even if you have limitations as to how much bandwidth you are allowed to use each month, you can download music direct to your phone and listen at your leisure with no interruptions. That's pretty awesome.

For the past couple o'months, I've been trying to discover the ins and outs of Spotify. I want to share my insights with you. Because I need your help. Heck, indie Celtic musicians of all sorts need your help. The tips I share below will help both me, fans of my Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, and fans of the Pub Songs Podcast get heard and make money.

Success on Spotify is based on 3 things…

From what I am learning, success on Spotify is based on three things.

1. Fans adding music to a playlist
2. Fans adding songs to their profile
3. Fans adding songs from a playlists to their playlists

Let be break this down as best as I can at present.

1. Fans adding music to a playlist

Spotify is all about the playlist. But these are not set in stone playlists that never change. No, these are living creatures that are constantly changing.

• You can create a playlist and add music on whatever theme you like.
• Make the playlist public and update it weekly to keep it fun.
• Share your playlist.
• Encourage people to follow your playlists.

2. Fans adding songs to their library

You have a folder for Songs. With one quick and easy click, you can add any song on Spotify to your folder for easier future access. It's like a universal library with music you love.

Listening to a song is obviously going to help the song chart better. If it's not added into their library, then those plays don't mean as much. You don't love the song.

So if you're out listening. Interact by adding the song to your library and listening to it some more.

3. Fans adding songs from a playlists to their playlists

You're listening to a public playlist. You hear a great song. You add it to your library. W00h00! Now what?

Now you can also add that song to your favorite playlist. This shows that you are interested in taking an action… a serious action. It means you want to listen and to enjoy someone's music on your own terms. That's even more valuable!

Follow These Celtic and Geek Playlists

Alright, it's time to put these tools into action. So that you can see how all this works because I'm not always the best at explaining stuff (feel free to post questions in the comments below).

Below are some of my playlists. You can find an even bigger list of Spotify Celtic music playlists here. Click through each that sounds interesting and follow the playlist. Some are pretty new. So if there's not much music listed, give me a couple weeks. That will change.

Celtic Music Playlists

• Top Celtic Music Charts: Listen to the Top the Charts tracks picked by Song Hengers every month, plus some of the top songs featured each and every week.
• Irish & Celtic Music of the Week: Features two episodes of music featured in the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Updated every Friday.

Celtic Geek Playlists

• Pub Songs Podcast of the Month: Listen to all of the music in the latest podcast episode without the jabbering.
• Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers: Irish songs rewritten about cats. Yes, the name says it all. If you like Celtic music and you like cats, you will LOVE this playlist.
• Firefly Drinking Songs – Inspired by Joss Whedon's Sci Fi Western: Listen to all of the music I have found that is inspired by the TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity
• Jedi Drinking Songs – Star Wars Fun: I bet you didn't know the Jedi liked to drink? Well, now you do.
• Geek Kids – Funny Songs for Geeky Kids

Let's Start Promoting Celtic Music

Now that you're following some of my playlists, I want to show you how to promote artists and songs in the playlists using one of the playlists as an example–Irish & Celtic Music of the Week. This  playlist features the latest two episodes of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast. Thus, it will update with new songs every week.

Here's what you should do:

1. Listen to the latest Irish & Celtic Music Podcast episode.
2. Go to this Spotify playlist and add your favorite song to your song library.
3. Add that song to your own playlist.
4. Follow the artist if you like their music.
5. Listen and enjoy either my playlist or your growing list of favorite songs.

Don't just play a song over and over again. Spotify will recognize you gaming the system. They will either ignore you or possibly even penalize the artist.

That's it. You are now helping promote independent Celtic music on Spotify and having a great time doing it.

Oh! And don't forget to subscribe to the Celtic Music Magazine. Because I will easily share the Spotify playlist along with the podcast shownotes.

Now if you haven't done so yet, please Follow Me on Spotify and enjoy some of my music.